Halo The Ghosts Of Reach
by Instinct Uncaged
Summary: Sean is a spartan III. he leads his squad against impossible odds just in their training, this is the story of his squad, his family and his mission in the Covenant War
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

James floated through the thick blackness of space gazing at the battle that was being waged over Reach. He knew that John and Linda wouldn't be able to help him, they didn't have EVA packs, he could only float around and wait an hour and a half before his oxygen gave out and hope that someone would find him before that. As he gazed toward the planet he had once called home, he hoped the Spartans would survive so that they could fend off this menace to humanity.

Captain Burke of the UNSC Destroyer _Pegasus_ stared in horror at the battle before him, the UNSC's fleet was all but destroyed and the orbital MAC guns around Reach were done for.

"Lutenient Nagasaki, prepare randomised vector, we're getting out of here," he said in a weary voice. There was nothing more they could do, the Spartans were finished, the fleet was nearly destroyed and the covenant were cleaning up after themselves. To stay would just be a death wish.

"Captain, detecting anomaly in quadrant sierra"

"From slipspace"

"No sir, local, and tiny sir, shall I send a probe out to retrieve?"

"Yes, as quickly as possible we don't want to get caught by the covenant".

There was a pause then, "sir I have image on your monitor, maximising".

The Burke stared at his monitor, the shape was like a man, the drone approached closer, "Christ" Burke mouthed, it was a Spartan in that eerie green armour "Lutenient, retrieve that Spartan at once then we're out of here"

"Aye sir"

It was an agonizing five minutes before the Spartan was brought on board.

"Lutenient go to slipspace now"

"Aye sir"

They went through the slip just as the covenant ships began to turn towards them.

"Lutenient you have the bridge I'm going to the bay to see this for myself"

"Yes sir!"

As the captain left the bridge he struggled to keep himself at a brisk walk, his anticipation was bubbling inside of him, the walk to the ship seemed to take hours and as the automatic doors slid open he seen the Medical crew carrying the Spartan on a stretcher, there was nearly ten of them carry the Spartan. They got it to the medical bay and lifted it onto the bed with great difficulty. They ran a quick series of tests including a resuscitation but it was no good, one of the medical officers approached Burke and said "Sir, I'm sorry to report that he's dead"

"Christ" Burke said to himself "I thought these guys were invincible"

"So did I sir but there's a message for you, a recording in the Spartans helmet come here sir and I'll show you"

Burke followed the medical officer to where they placed the Spartan's helmet, they had plugged a cable in the data output slot in the back of the head, Burke nodded to the officer to play the message, a man's voice cam through the speakers "My name is James O'Connor and if your listening to this message then it means that my suit has stopped recycling the oxygen and I am probably dead. I had ninety minutes in space to live and my only thought was that I hope that the rest of the Spartans have survived and that I hope that there are more Spartans to come because otherwise humanity doesn't really have a chance at winning this war, to whoever finds my helmet I implore you, the Spartan project has been a success, we are the best the UNSC has so please keep the Spartan project alive", then there was only static.

"That's it I'm afraid sir"

"No thank you this has been enlightening, thanks sergeant".

With that done he left the room and returned to the bridge "Lutenient" he said as soon as he entered "I want skeleton crew on all areas until we've finished our three randomised vectors, then head for earth I need to talk to the ONI committee"

"Aye sir"

"I will be in cryo, wake me when we reach the last vector"

"Yes sir".

Burke then left the bridge and headed for his cryo pod. Along the way he started to think about what the Spartan, James had said. He understood that the Spartans were by far the best that humanity had, they could easily best a marine and an ODST trooper, these covenant elite things seemed to be one of their few equals on the battlefield, he understood the need that humanity had for these heroes. They needed all the help they could get and the marines seemed to not be able to hold their own without backup. He smiled to himself as he thought what ONI would say when he said he would want his own group of Spartans to train and teach as his own, they would be in memory of this Spartan that had delivered this vital message to him, they would be in memory of all the Spartans that had died back on reach they would be, the Ghosts of Reach.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Burke walked out of the ONI committee chamber stunned and with a broad smile spread across his face. The ONI had given him permission to have his own group of Spartans. However there were conditions to which he would have to abide to. Firstly he had to pick the children from the age of six. Secondly only members of his crew could train them, thirdly they would confine the Spartans to a private ONI approved training area and lastly they weren't going to be quite the Spartan that James was, he had discovered that James was a Spartan II the best of the best, his group of Spartans on the other-hand would be Spartan III, not quite as good as the Spartan II but he could get more of the Spartan III. He settled for these conditions and considered himself lucky that he was aloud any Spartans at all. "Now" he thought to himself "I just need to find the right candidates for the job". As he walked back to his ship he decided that one hundred was a good number of candidates to bring to the facility, he sighed, it was gonna be a long couple of weeks.

Sean stared around the play ground, and leapt from the platform he was on, he grasped the monkey bars and began swinging to and fro, pushing himself across more of the bars, his six year old arms clinging to the bars. His friends had always been astounded by his strength at the task of gripping those thin strips of cylindrical metal, but then again they were also amused by his thick messy dark brown hair. He didn't care though, why would he? He just had a great time getting caught up in the moment, without a care in the world, the wind in his hair, whipping at his face, he just enjoyed life, just like any six year old would. He looked over towards the benches and he seen a man, staring at him, like a scientist observes a guinea pig. The man gestured for him to come over; he slowly walked towards the man.

"You're very good at those monkey bars" he said in a casual voice

"That's what all my friends say as well, they say I'm the best at everything" he boasted.

"O.k. let's see if you can win at this game" the man said, he reached in his trousers and pulled out a little grey car, it was based on one of those old fashion Chevrolet camaros from the year twenty-ten. Sean looked at it, confused.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked uncertain of what was going to happen.

"I want you to catch it" said the man.

"You want me to catch a little toy car"

"Yes"

"What's the catch?"

"It has a little motor in it"

"So, let me get this straight, you want me to catch a little toy car with a little toy motor, am I right?"

"Yes, so you shouldn't have much trouble with it then"

"If you say so" Sean said, still sounding rather confused.

The man placed the little toy car on the ground and stepped back. "You may begin" he said.

"But it's not even moving"

"Go on then, grab it so"

Sean reached forward to grab the car, but then suddenly it moved a foot to the left, he reached for it again and it moved once again. Then it hit Sean, the little car must have a motion sensor inside it, which activated a motor, which must move the car. He reached out to test his theory once more.

The man stared at Sean as if observing him to see how he coped with the situation and to see how he solved the problem.

Sean then suddenly took a quick swipe at it and his fingers just brushed the side of the toy, then he did another in quick succession and succeeded in grabbing it. He opened his palm to look at the little toy.

"Impressive" the man said, he extended his arm and the little toy car out of Sean's hand.

"Thanks mister that was really good fun" Sean said and he ran off to tell his friends about his little victory.

Captain Burke watched small boy run towards the other group of children. "He's fast" Burke thought, he reached in his pocket and took out a notepad and pencil and began scribbling notes down about the boy. It took far too long to get out the notepad and pencil, these civilian clothes were far too loose but the pockets were rather useful. He then took out a pad with a screen on it, it scanned the little vehicle and it came up with two different sets of DNA. Burke selected the second because he realised that the first set was his. He then brought up the scanners menu and selected the scan that he had saved from one of the journals written by a previous person who did the Spartan project, a woman called Doctor Hasley. The scan was only a fifty percent match but the Captain had a good feeling about that boy, so he jotted down the boys name on his list of one hundred that he was going to take in out of the hundred and fifty candidates to be judged. That boy was going to get in; he was going to make it so.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**General Order**:

Unseal Cryo tube 3786

Occupant: Captain Peter Benjamin

ODST Captain

Three Purple Hearts

Colonial Cross

Specialized Carbon Fibre Armour at request

Captain of ODST dropship the Meteora

There was a sudden hiss as the cryo tube opened and the atmosphere pressurized, the hatch of the tube slid open and Captain Peter Benjamin hoisted himself out of the pod, he coughed and spat out the cryo fluid lodged in his throat, it hit the floor with a satisfying splat. "I hate that dam fluid," he said in weary voice, "always gets stuck at the back of my throat".

An officer in naval uniform approached him "Sir" the young man said cautiously "you're requested on the bridge".

"And what vessel has my dropship docked in today" the Captain asked the officer.

"The UNSC destroyer Pegasus sir" the officer replied.

"May I have I data pad about this ship?" he squinted to see the officer's rank "Corporal".

"Aye sir", the officer handed him the small pad with the uploaded data

"Thank you Corporal, that will be all"

"Yes sir" the Corporal gave him a brisk salute, turned and marched away.

Benjamin left the med bay on his dropship ship and stepped into the hangar of the destroyer, there were seven longsword fighters as well as two limited class sabre fighters. It would be a good layout to fend off Covenant attacks. The Captain walked through the automatic doors and started to analyse the pad. The ships weapon capabilities were impressive, it had three magnetic accelerator cannon or MAC guns for short, two shots from these guns could take out a covenant cruiser and on top of that it had fourteen seventy five millimetre rail guns which were used to take out the covenant fighters called seraphs. It also had six archer missile pods, each containing seventy missiles The ship had two and a half meter titanium A hull; this ship was armed to the teeth and could take a severe pounding before getting destroyed.

The Captain walked into the bridge and approached the Captain of the Pegasus. "Captain Peter Benjamin reporting for duty sir!" presenting a salute.

"At ease Captain, I am Captain Burke of the UNSC Pegasus, nice to have you aboard" Burke said and returned the man's salute, "I had a look at your service record, very impressive, your squad was one of the few that got off reach before the end".

Peter felt a pang of regret at that; he had had to leave some good people on reach.

""Yes sir" he said, then added so that only he could hear "we left some good people there".

Burke watched him then said, "be that as it may, I have decided to recruit you"

"Recruit me sir?"

"Yes, I have decided that you are going to train my group of Spartans"

"You have permission from the ONI to have a group of Spartans? Get real there's no way that y-"

"As it stands I do, our original group was one hundred out of one hundred and fifty candidates but ONI are now pressuring me to take the full one hundred and fifty, I have agreed to this, I believe that the more Spartans we have the better"

"That's understandable sir but this means that the teaching won't be as focused as it would be"

"I know this Captain which is why I have chosen you to teach these Spartans, you are apparently the best of the best, so Captain" Burke paused, "are you up for it?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good, I would like a brief of your training methods on my desk in a week please, the recruits will arrive two days after that.

"Excuse me sir but you intend to train these Spartans on the Pegasus?"

"No Captain my ship would be in ruins, no these Spartans are going to be trained on Ophelia four"

"Sir that's been abandoned by the UNSC for decades"

"Well it's not anymore, ONI have built a base specially designed to train these Spartans"

"Well, sir I can't find any fault with that plan so count me in"

"Excellent, I hope you still have that special armour of yours"

"Why?"

"These Spartans are gonna be tough"


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sean lay in his bed dreaming, he dreamed that he would become a great soldier one day and destroy the covenant forces and the rebels, he dreamed of being the hero of humanity, he dreamed of being what people were now calling Spartans. Then he woke, it didn't take too much to wake him, he could always hear everything and the slightest noise would wake him easily. Sean stared around at his room, his parents had painted glow in the dark stars on his ceiling and walls as a surprise, only to discover that he didn't like space, it made him jumpy, Sean liked his feet planted firmly on the ground, but that's not what woke him, he had heard a sound like the slamming of a door. He got out of bed and creaked the door open slightly.

His parents were standing at the top of the stairs, his father held a pistol in one hand, aimed at something at the bottom of the stairs. Sean rarely felt fear but his fear compelled him to figure out more. Suddenly a ball of green energy flew up the stairs and struck his father in the chest, the plasma boiled at his insides and he crumpled on the ground. His mother screamed and picked up the pistol, firing wildly. Another plasma shot hit her in the face, she fell backwards and Sean seen here face, the plasma had gone straight through the skin to the bone.

He burst out of his room "you bastards!" he yelled and ran down the stairs and crashed into one of the attackers, the thing fell over and he started punching it, "you covy bastard!" Then there was a searing pain in his right arm, he looked and seen that one of the things had injected him with something, Sean got off the thing he was attacking and stumbled towards the one that had injected him, his vision started to blur, his legs became heavy, he tripped and fell, he couldn't move, the things had started to crowd around him and Sean slipped out of consciousness.

Sean woke with a start, he was inside a ship, the engines roared around him, he had been strapped to a chair with a harness, he looked around nervously, there were nineteen other children all harnessed to the seats but they were all still unconscious. A man in marine combat gear walked over to him and knelt down next to him.

"Hey you're the first one up," the marine said

"Wha what happened?" Sean asked still a little groggy from being unconscious

"Covenant launched a stealth raid, they killed your parents, but we got you out safe and sound, you're gonna be all right now son" the marine said concernedly.

Sean hung his head, anger boiled inside of him, the Covenant would pay for this, he would make sure of it, if he had to kill every single Covenant he would. He made a silent vow to avenge his parent's death by killing all the Covenant he could.

He raised his head slowly; the marine was still watching him looking nervous, unsure of the child's reaction. They stared at each other for a long time then Sean broke the silence,

"So where are we going?"

"Can't say" the marine said "can't tell you the location"

They sat in silence once again until the other children started to wake up, then the marine left to talk to the children. More marine personnel came from the cockpit and started to talk as well, very soon there was a buzz of conversation in the ship. Then the marine personnel checked that the children were secure and announced that they were landing. The ship then dived and Sean got a sense of vertigo, then they stopped and the ship touched down.

The ramp at the back of the ship opened revealing overcast skies. As the children were unstrapped, they covered their faces from the bright light after being in such a dark ship.

Captain Benjamin watched as eight pelicans touched down, there ramps opened and the children slowly emerged from the dropships, he gestured to them to come closer. The man wore his carbon fibre titanium A armour, he looked similar to a Spartan but smaller and not as bulky, his silver helmet gleamed as the light reflected of it. Many of the children appeared to look sad, it was necessary to lie to them about their parents, in a way it was a good thing, many of the children also had looks of anger and revenge in their eyes, others looked passive impossible to tell what they were thinking.

Captain Burke sat in his office in the "_Pegasus_" watching the images of the recruits leaving their dropships, he noticed the boy with the messy dark brown hair, what was his name? Sean yes, he had a passive look on his face. The Captain tapped the COM to the bridge "Lutenient, keep us in orbit with the planet"

"Aye sir"

That boy would different; it would be interesting to see what kind of Spartan he would become.

Sean moved closer to the man in the silver armour, he wore the helmet of an ODST, the helljumpers as they were called. He gestured for them to come closer, Sean and all the other children approached the man, they stood in a crowd around him.

The man spoke in a loud voice, which also emitted from the speakers around the base "the Covenant are a growing threat, the UNSC needs all the soldiers it can get, have you all heard of the Spartans?" There was a loud cheer from the children, "Well your all about to become a Spartan, we are going to train you and make you the best that you can be, but all of you that don't wish to be Spartans your dropship awaits"

None of the children moved.

"Very well then" Captain Benjamin said, "demonstrators, show these kids their quarters, wakeup is at oh six hundred tomorrow, and welcome to hell"

The children all filed off the large field, the wind had started to pick up, the trees began to rustle, night was fast approaching and their last bit of respite was coming to an end.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sean jumped and fell out of his bed; he looked over the rows of beds to see the demonstrators banging on the metal exterior of their barracks. All their old clothes were gone; they now had a pair of grey tracksuit tops and bottoms to wear.

"Come on!" a demonstrator called out "time to get a move on"

Sean got dressed as quickly as possible and sprinted out the barracks to where the other children were waiting in line, Sean fell in behind them. He nudged the boy in front of him, the boy turned round, he had mess of curly dark blonde hair.

"What are we waiting in line for?" Sean asked the boy

"Not sure but I hope it's good"

It wasn't. At the front of the queue there were three men each with a chair in front of them and a razor in hand. Sean stared horrified as the man shaved off his mess of dark brown hair, it was like losing a piece of his identity. The man then pushed him off of the chair, he fell to the ground. Then with anger inside him he stood up and punched the man square in the jaw, the man stumbled back, blood dripping from the side of his mouth. Then the silver armoured man came along and shouted "Recruit! Fall in with the rest of the company, now!"

Sean sprinted to where the other children were in lines of fifteen. The silver armoured man walked to the front of this group. When everyone was ready he spoke "recruits, a squad is like a family, you need to understand their every word, their every gesture and their body language. For this reason I am now going to assign you all a squad."

Sean listened intently until his name was called. He joined his four other squad mates.

He recognized the boy he had talked to in the line. The boy started the conversation.

"I suppose we should learn each others names, I'm Diarmuid"

"I'm Sean"

"I'm David"

"I'm Chris"

"Niall"

The five of them sat in silence until "squads!" they all turned "I will now designate your squad name. The silver armoured man moved around pointing to each squad then he reached their squad "you will be squad terra" he said then moved on.

Squad Terra looked at one another, put their hands in the middle of each other and shouted "Squad Terra!".

The silver armoured man returned to centre of all the squads and called to them, "now that you are all in your designated squads we're gonna go for a stroll", he signalled the demonstrators who brought out full pack rucksacks "you will each carry one of these", he held up a pack in one hand, "it is a seventy five litre bag, you will march with this on your back around the compound ten times, then you shall return here for more drills, any squad that is not back here in an hour goes without dinner" he stared around at all the children "what are you waiting for then?".

There was a commotion as the children rushed to get a rucksack and put them on, some struggled to even put it on, several fell on their backs like turtles, unable to move. Sean sprinted out the gate with the rest of his squad just behind him, but they soon grew tired and slowed to a walk. Other squads ran past them, but squad Terra held it's pace. After nine laps it seemed to pay off they were fourth out of ten, Sean then said "let's sprint at the end we might be able to overtake some people", they all agreed and as they rounded the last corner they all broke into a run and they overtook Gamma squad who were exhausted from trying to stay ahead. Terra squad arrived in third, they were very pleased, there were several high fives all round, then the Captain came over and shouted "you're not finished yet! Fifty push ups then fifty sit ups and then you'll enjoy a lovely candle lit dinner".

The squad who were exhausted collapsed to the ground and began their exercises, they struggled through their exercises and nearly crawled to the mess hall because they were so exhausted. That night they slept well because they knew that tomorrow it was going to happen all over again.

Days turned in to weeks, weeks in to years, then it got interesting when Sean was twelve at least he thought he was, he couldn't quite remember Captain Benjamin showed them weapons so everyone could find their strong point.

Niall immediately fell in love with the sniper, he turned out to be a crack shot. Chris was a menace with the shotgun, able to hit targets within twenty feet. David had a taste for explosives and rockets being his favourite, he could find the weak point on any vehicle and get a direct rocket shot on it. Diarmuid could get three hundred and sixty bulls eyes from two SMGs and Sean's best was the ma5b assault rifle, he always kept the enemy pinned down.

One day Captain Benjamin summoned all the squads to the main training field, once all thirty squads had fallen in he spoke, "today, will be the day that you will have to push yourselves to the limits. At the moment we have thirty squads, only fifteen can go through to the bio-augmentation stage, which means fifteen squads will have to settle for becoming bad ass marines." he paused "the way we're gonna decide this is with an exercise, out there" he gestured out and over the compound fence "is a jungle, rivers, caves and other terrain, we have fitted all weapons with stun rounds as well as flash bang grenades. All the squads will be released via dropship to separate areas of the jungle; you will then neutralize all enemy squads. When fifteen squads have been called in as KIA the exercise will be over, only report KIA when the whole squad in down, not just one person, understood?"

"Sir yes sir" all the Spartans replied

"Well what are you waiting for then?" the Captain said "grab your weapons, dust off is in five minutes"

All the squads sprinted for the armoury, Terra was second to it. Niall picked up an SRS99C-S2 AM sniper rifle and six clips of ammunition excluding the clip he slapped in as he left, he also took a new battle rifle and lots of ammo clips. Chris picked up a shotgun and a battle rifle as well with six clips of ammo for each. Diarmuid picked up two SMG's and five clips of ammo for each. David picked up a rocket launcher and a grenade launcher with two packs of rocket ammo and ten grenade rounds. Finally Sean took a ma5b assault rifle and a magnum as well as seven clips of ammo for each. Each member also carried three flash bang grenades.

The squad left armoury laden with guns and ammunition and boarded their pelican. They all took their seats and in ten minutes thirty pelicans had dusted off and were in the air.

Sean got out of his seat and walked to the cockpit area, he leaned on the pilot's chair and whispered "keep the ramp open so we can get a fix on the targets"

The pilot gave him an incredulous look, nodded and opened the ramp, the cool air blow at their ODST titanium A armour, the squad put their helmets on. Sean gave the hand signals to enter a private COM channel. The pelican stopped moving and Sean immediately moved to the ramp to look outside. There was a pelican landing about two kilometres northwest of their position. He clicked his COM on "first target two K north-west". Four acknowledgment lights flashed blue to say they were ready.

The pelican hadn't fully landed as squad Terra jumped off the ramp of the pelican. They had been dropped next to a large rock face with a waterfall behind them and the jungle in front of them.

"Delta formation guys, COM silence from here on" Sean said as they approached the edge of the jungle. The squad's acknowledgment lights flashed. Sean held up his fist to gesture the squad to stop, they fell in behind him. He gestured for Niall to take up a sniping point on the rock face they had been dropped at. His light flashed and he moved out to scale the rock face. He then gestured for Chris to take point and Diarmuid to cover the rear. They all unslung their weapons. The silence was deadly, they could only hear the thunder of the waterfall behind them.

They moved forward slowly. They had only travelled a kilometre when they heard a rustling. They took cover in some bushes and levelled their weapons. Sierra squad burst through a line of trees in full sprint, they had clearly been attacked, there was only three of them left.

David fired a grenade from his launcher into the middle of them, the grenade flashed and the squad were on the ground, Sean, Chris and Diarmuid silenced one each. Sean checked the squad's roster, he marked down the three as KIA, which meant the whole squad was neutralized, he called in an evac.

Niall's light flashed amber to indicate someone was approaching, the squad moved back to their drop point, a flash bang grenade went off, Sean was blinded and disoriented, he stumbled back but stayed on his feet. There were two coughs from a sniper, Sean's vision cleared and he seen a downed Spartan from squad Delta down, Niall was as reliable as ever but there was likely to be four more near by, Delta had always been their biggest rival.

Sean gestured to his squad to take up defensive position around the basin were the waterfall was. They took cover behind some rocks at three sections around the basin and waited.

An hour passed, an hour and a half, two hours then there was a cough from a sniper, Niall's light hadn't flashed, Sean looked up to see Niall's sniper fall in to the basin, David fired a rocket into the bushes and the area cleared. Delta had been in the bushes the whole time. Then all hell broke loose. Diarmuid, Sean and Chris sprayed the area with armour piercing stun rounds, leaves were shredded by the fire, David loaded another rocket, Delta rolled forward and charged, returning fire. Delta had always been the tougher Spartans, only David could match their weakest in a fistfight, the rest of Terra hadn't a hope.

Delta bounded over the rocks and managed disarm Terra with nothing but their fists. David threw one of them to the ground and pushed a stun round into the weaker armour behind the neck, he then jumped in to help Diarmuid, who was up against a much larger opponent.

Chris roundhouse kicked a Spartan in the ribs, the Spartan grabbed his leg and flipped him over.

Sean was going against the leader of Delta, a large Spartan called Mark, he was at least a foot taller than Sean and much stronger. Mark picked Sean up and threw him to the ground, Sean rolled, drew his magnum and shot the one that David and Diarmuid were fighting, Diarmuid moved on to help Chris and David moved to help Sean.

David charged Mark and charged into him full force, but Mark dug his heels in and shoved him off, Sean fired at him twice, Mark rolled and dodged. Then Niall's light flashed amber, Sean looked around.

A warthog crashed through the undergrowth and headed straight for Mark, Sean and David dived out of the way. The warthog rushed past them and collided with Mark, it slammed him and he was thrown back into a tree. Sean fired a round in to him for good measure.

Niall climbed out of the Warthog.

"That was a bit noticeable don't you think?" David said to Niall

"He didn't notice it" Niall replied gesturing to Mark.

Sean sent the signal for evac and a voice came through the COM.

"Congratulations squad Terra you have survived the exercise, evac at your position in fifteen minutes, you've made it through to the next stage of being a Spartan".


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sean walked through the automatic doors that led to Captain Benjamin's office. As he walked through the doors he stood in front of the desk and presented a crisp salute.

"Sir, Terra squad leader reporting for duty sir"

Captain Benjamin looked up from his desk, "at ease, take a seat".

Sean sat down and waited for the Captain to speak. The Captain put down his pen and stared at Sean with his arms folded.

"So, what am I supposed to do with you and your squad?" he said wearily

"With regard to what sir?"

"You know dam well what, Mark has six broken ribs seven fractures and is now paralysed from the waist down", the Captain leaned back in his chair and sighed "I suppose by all means you should easily be getting through to the augmentation, taking on Delta was either stupid or brave, they were the best, if I was to wager money I would have bet against your squad"

"The warthog helped sir"

"Of course it helped with Mark, but the rest of the squad as well, that must've been a hell of a fire fight"

"Well it became more of a hand to hand fight, David took one out"

"Yes, Avery will hold that against him for a while"

Sean nodded "Yes sir, then I shot the one that David and Diarmuid were fighting, then David and I fought Mark, and Diarmuid and Chris fought the other, we wouldn't have been able to beat Mark were it not for Niall"

"Yes that was nice, driving while partially stunned, actually where did he get the warthog from?"

Sean shrugged "not sure sir he said their was a patrol passing by and he borrowed it"

Captain Benjamin stared hard at Sean; Sean could feel that gaze stare right through him. "I've decided" the Captain said, "I have decided to let you and your squad go through to the next stage of the project"

Sean saluted "thank you sir"

The Captain returned the gesture "dismissed, I shall see you at thirteen hundred tomorrow for the procedure"

Sean turned and left.

Once the boy had left Captain Benjamin swung round in his chair and sighed, "God's speed boy" he whispered. He wondered how many good soldiers in a battle that couldn't be won, even though the destroyer "Pegasus" had just gained seventy kick ass marines he wondered how many Spartans they would lose in the procedure.

Sean sat on his bunk dressed in the white paper medical gown; all of his squad had gone before him so he was left in his bunk sitting alone.

The two medical officers appeared at the door, Sean nodded stood up and left the barracks. Sean walked down the metal corridor. The metal floor felt cold against his bare feet, they slapped across the floor loudly. He walked into the medical bay; the automatic doors slid open with a hiss. In the room there was a large metal table, around the table were six sets of needles filled with a strange blue liquid. Sean lay down on that cold metal table. The medical officers strapped him in and left. The procedure started the needles began to spin then, they hit, the pain was intense, he closed his eyes so hard he felt they might not open, he clenched his fists tightly, all his muscles tensed up then all was black.

Sean woke up suddenly, sweat covered his brow, his clothes were drenched in sweat. He felt cold and restless, he looked around, there was no one else in the room it was only him. He was brought three meals a day, but he had a high fever and everything seemed to only be moving at half speed. Finally after two weeks, he was let out of that room. All of his squad had survived the operation, except for Diarmuid who had died during the procedure. Sean and his squad went into the gym area, it took some time to learn how to walk but eventually it came back, then he moved on to running, he crashed into three walls not judging his speed right, also he was able to lift much heavier weights as well. David could lift half a ton. Sean stared at his newly super-engineered squad of Spartans.

Then he was called to Captain Benjamin's office. He entered saluted and was told to sit down. Captain Benjamin stared at him with a stare that the Captain was infamous for. Sean held his face straight and didn't allow his face to betray any emotion.

"Has your squad recovered from the procedure?" the Captain asked

"Yes sir and we're performing better than ever" Sean replied, they performing far better than before, they were all faster and stronger than they ever could have been before.

"Good then it's time to move on to the next step"

"Next step sir?"

"Yes, follow me, and call your squad to meet us in the engineering lab."

Sean opened a private COM channel, "Terra meet the Captain and I in the engineering bay"

When the two arrived the other Spartans were already there.

"The next step of this program is to get you your armour"

When the squad walked to the centre of the room they saw that there were four sets of armour, one for each Spartan. Then the Captain took them in a line past the armour, speaking as he went. "Niall this is your armour" he said gesturing to his left, "it's scout armour, light enough that you can move around, yet still heavy enough to take a beating, these technicians will fit you in", Niall stopped there to get fitted into his armour.

"Chris this is your armour" he said pointing to the suit "it's CQB or close quarters battle armour", Chris also stopped there.

"David, we needed to reinforce your armour so we gave you EOD, or explosive ordnance disposal, you can take the most beating out of them all", David stopped to get fitted.

"Finally we have you, the squad leader Sean, we gave you the best all rounded armour we could find, it's mark six armour, enjoy". Sean stopped to get fitted. It took fifteen minutes for eight technicians to fit his armour.

"Try to start slowly, this suit speeds up all your reactions, so start with a slow walk" the technician said when the armour was fitted. Sean raised his right leg, it came up much faster than he had intended and slowly he started to walk.

Within half an hour he was running around an obstacle course at a nearly impossible speed for a human. He stopped in front of a technician "excuse me," he said, "can I ask you something?" the technician nodded "what's the blue bar at the top of the HUD?"

"It's your shield bar" the man said "when you run out of shields, take cover for a while and they will start to recharge"

"O.k. thanks" Sean said and he sprinted off, then the Captain called them in. The Spartans all looked at each other. Niall's armour had a _cap-_like protrusion along its rim, a beak- like extension under the chin, and a thin, slit-shaped visor. He had two rectangular shoulder pads and a large plate on his chest in the shape of a H.

Chris' armour had a "T" shaped visor with two large cheek guards. On the top of the helmet there was block alloy that forces a protective brace on the top of the helmet.

His shoulder pads were made of a rough rectangular plate going across the upper arm and the **body** consisted of a chest plat that is made of a silvery alloy with an additional 4 set of plates that were fused together.

David's armour had a mostly square helmet with two separate eyepieces. His shoulder pads blocked off any joints on the shoulder. The body was similar to Sean's but a bit bigger and more reinforced.

Chris let out a long whistle.

"You like em" the Captain said, "well I got just the mission you can test them in".


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The UNSC destroyer "_Pegasus_" arrived from slipspace and fell into orbit around the planet of Pacfius. Captain Burke entered the briefing room, where four seven foot giants waited for him.

"Officer on deck" one shouted and they all saluted

"At ease Spartans" he said, "your mission is to infiltrate to compound and warehouse of insurgents and capture their leader, oh also, you have permission to level the place am I clear?"

"Sir yes sir"

"Very well then" Burke said, he tapped a button on the console in front of him and a hologram of the landscape came up "you will drop here" a red dot appeared some five kilometres from the base "we have to warthogs at this point for you as well, it will be too hot for a pick up once you have the target so use these to drive three clicks south where a pelican will be waiting for you. This is your man" an image of a man with short silvery hair popped up "his name is Rufus Clarke, he has been leading insurgents on this planet for years, we just can't get him in, that's it, good luck Spartans". Burke gave a salute, which the Spartans returned and left.

Sean and his squad headed for the armoury, Sean had his assault rifle and magnum, David had a rocket launcher and an SMG as well as two Lotus anti-tank mines, Chris had a shotgun and battle rifle, Niall took a sniper and an SMG. Each Spartan also carried frags and ammo The Spartans then boarded their pelican and lifted off.

The pelican shot down towards the planet, and then levelled out for the atmospheric entrance. In fifteen minutes they landed and the pelican was back up and in the air to wait at the rally point.

The Spartans ran through the dense forest, it was similar to the jungle on Ophelia that they had trained in for years. Sean set the rally point on their HUDs. When they were two kilometres from the base Sean held up his fist, signalling to stop. He signalled to Niall to scout a sniping position and take out the sentries. They stayed in position; they heard the faint cough of Niall's sniper. Niall's light flashed green to say he was done and that he was back in formation. The squad moved forward, watching for more sentries. They approached the fence and Chris drew his knife, he clicked a button on it and the blade became heated to cut through it. The blade passed through the fence like a knife through butter. The squad passed through the fence and took cover behind a large warehouse.

Sean gestured to a compound building, about twenty metres from where they were position. He signalled to Dave to move around the left and for Niall and Chris to go left. Sean and David sprinted around the side, Sean drew his side arm and fired five times at a patrol, they all dropped dead. Sean motioned for David to lay down a lotus anti-tank mine on the ground. David set the time for twenty minutes and threw it of the ground. They then continued round the warehouse, Niall and Chris were already waiting at the compound buildings entrance.

Sean nodded towards the inside, four acknowledgment lights flashed. He held up five fingers then took one down every second. When the last one went down the Spartans burst through the doors.

The building was a huge rectangular office, lights hung from the ceiling. There were chairs and desks layered in the room, it could have been a one level office complex. The lights hanging from the ceiling illuminated a huge crowd of men, dressed in the red insurgent uniform. Somewhere near the back of the crowd a man stood on a desk.

"So" the man said with a smirk on his face. Sean zoomed on the man and highlighted him on everyone's HUDs as the target. "The UNSC really has pulled all the stops on this one" the man said "they sent Spartans to silence the voice of the people" a murmur travelled around the crowd, "well we're not going to let them, right" a roar of approval swept through the crowd, "take aim!" the man said. The Spartans hunkered down ready to spring; the men in the crowd levelled their weapons. The man raised his hand into the air "fire!"


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Spartans dove behind a desk each and overturned it, so that it could be cover, just in the nick of time. The crowd opened fire at the spot that the Spartans had just been standing.

Sean ducked up from behind his desk, primed a frag and threw it into the midst. Several people dove out of the way, others weren't so lucky. Bits of flesh flew as the grenade exploded and those that dove out of the way got sprayed with shrapnel. Half of the crowd were down. The rest of the crowd took cover behind more desks.

David took out his rocket launcher and fired at a table. The table was obliterated and the three men behind it were sent flying into the air.

Niall fired his sniper into the back of the overturned desks, it's armour-piercing bullets going through the wood and hitting the men behind it.

Chris took out his battle rifle and was systematically taking three shot bursts at the insurgent's heads.

Sean dove forward towards another table and then sprayed the insurgents with assault rifle bullets. It was quite clear that the Spartans were winning this fight. The last insurgent was finally blown apart by a good rocket from David, the Spartans turned to where Rufus was. At the back of the room were two heavy gauss turrets, mounted into the floor. Rufus stood on his desk. He was wearing what look what looked like a much bigger, and bulkier version of the MJOLNIR armour.

A gauss turret opened fired, the shot hit David in his reinforced chest, he was thrown into the air and slammed against the back wall, the concrete smashed by the force of the blow, and David lay motionless. Niall sniped one of the gunners and Chris shot the other. Sean ran forward, cautiously, not sure what to expect from this new battlesuit. Rufus swung and he ducked, then Rufus delivered an uppercut to the stomach, Sean was lift into the air and hit the ceiling, then fell to the floor creating a small crater.

Niall fired a sniper shot that hit Rufus in the leg; it pinged off of his armour. The man yelled, then lifted up one of the tables and threw it at Niall. The table slammed into him knocking him off his feet.

Chris fired three rounds of shotgun shells. The battlesuit lifted up an arm and created a large shield around the front of the armour. Chris slung his shotgun and ran forward unsheathing his knife, he clicked the button and the blade glowed red with heat. Chris slashed with his knife; the suit grabbed the sharp end of the blade in a fist and wrenched it out of Chris's hand. The battlesuit threw it aside and kicked Chris; he flew backwards and slammed into the wall where David was lying. He then set to work trying to unlock the armour.

Sean nodded to Chris to continue. He and Niall picked themselves up off the ground and turned to face their enemy. Rufus laughed, "This is the best the UNSC has to offer". Sean nodded to Niall; they sprinted round either side of the battlesuit spraying it with SMG and assault fire, the bullets pinged off the suit of armour. The man laughed again "those don't work" he said. Then Niall and Sean turned and ran head on into him, pushing him back, Rufus dug his heels in but could hold them back, then he pressed a button and a thrusters pack activated. Jets of fire spewed from the pack and soon the two Spartans found themselves being thrown back into the wall opposite David and Chris. The man put them through the concrete then pulled them back in.

"Hey!" a shout came from across the room. Rufus turned round. David stood, armour scorched black from the gauss gun, rocket launcher slung over his shoulder, Chris next to him. Rufus dropped the two Spartans.

Sean entered a private COM, "David fire two rockets, he'll raise shield, then lower in we all run and hold him in place, then I'll get him in the weak neck with a stun round". Four acknowledgment lights flashed.

Rufus stared at the Spartan with the rocket. "So what're ya gonna do?"

David fired two rockets, threw the launcher aside, and then he and Chris sprinted forward. Niall and Sean picked themselves up a final time. It all seemed to go in slow motion. The rockets exploded against Rufus' shields, Chris and David ran through the smoke and held the suit in place, Niall and Sean jumped on the back of the suit and pulled it down, Sean then drew his sidearm and fired a stun round into the neck. The man stopped struggling, the chemicals in the stun round temporarily paralysing him.

The Spartans released their grips.

"Right" Sean said wearily "let's get him out of this suit".

The suit took five minutes to get off.

"Sir" David said

"Yes"

"This suit has a nuclear self-destruct"

"Scan would it impact the local population of the nearest city"

"Negative"

"Set it for five minutes"

Chris hoisted Rufus over his shoulder and the squad began to leave. There was a huge explosion just outside; David's lotus had just gone off. The base was in chaos, men ran around putting out fires, then one of them seen the Spartans.

"Move!" Sean shouted. The Spartans sprinted through the fence, Sean's shield bar dropped to half way as he went rear to soak up the fire, then he sprinted into the forest. In the distance behind them they heard warthog and mongoose engines starting up. The Spartans sprinted harder and faster than they ever had before and soon enough they were rewarded. The warthogs were some twenty metres in front, when they reached them Chris put Rufus in the passenger seat of Sean's hog. Sean climbed in and David manned the light chaingun. Chris manned the other warthog's chaingun while Niall drove. The engines ignited and the Spartans gunned it. They drove side by side, crashing through the forest.

Just then four warthogs and three mongooses burst out from the side of the forest and fell in behind them. The gunners rotated the turrets to face the Spartans; the passengers on the mongooses levelled their assault rifles.

"Evasive manuvers" Sean called "gunners take out those hogs". Three acknowledgment lights flashed. Sean slammed the back brakes of the warthog on sending it into a powerslide, Niall followed suit.

David and Chris opened fire on their pursuers. A mongoose exploded in the background and Sean heard a warthog crash and explode.

One of the warthogs had a gauss gun, the enemy opened fire. Sean's warthog shuddered from the impact of the shot. Niall swerved and was hit by a second shot. The warthog began to flip forward; Sean swerved his warthog into a power slide.

"Jump!" he shouted to Chris and Niall. Niall clambered over the middle bar into the passenger side. Chris released the turret and clung to the side. The two of them leapt from the warthog.

Chris landed on the back near the turret, he held on to the side and David hoisted him up. Niall wasn't so lucky. He flew through the air; Sean reached out of the driver's side and grabbed Niall's hand. Niall was dragged along the ground at seventy-five kilometres per hour, his shield dissipated.

"Chris! Take the wheel" Sean called; Chris leaned forward and grabbed the wheel. Sean leaned completely out of the side and hoisted Niall up; Bullets pinged off the side of the warthog, "David, covering fire". David's light flashed and a roar of machine gun fire responded, a warthog exploded again.

Sean got on the COM "foxtrot eight-seventeen do you copy?"

"Roger that what's wrong?"

"We won't make it to the pickup zone, setting new recommended point, ready warthog clamps to lock while in motion"

"Location received, ETA two minutes"

"Roger that over and out"

Sean took the wheel, "Hold on Spartans!" Sean slid the warthog into a power slide onto a dusty road; the night sky was lit overhead by machine gun fire.

There was a roar overhead as a pelican flew overhead. Sean out his foot to the floor the pelican started to descend, it's ramp opened and three Spartans stood at the edge with rocket launchers. The Spartans fired and the missiles destroyed the pursuing vehicles.

The pelican lowered more and clamped onto the warthog, soon they were up in the air. David passed up Rufus to one of the Spartans, and then clambered up into the pelican. The rest of squad Terra followed.

As the pelican flew from the base faster and faster, one of the other Spartans asked, "What happened to the rest of the base?"

David held up a hand. A huge mushroom cloud erupted from where the base was, the pelican picked up speed to evade the EMP distortion.

Sean put two fingers across the helmet across his helmet, the gesture of the Spartan smile. He opened a COM "mission accomplished, good job Spartans"


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The pelican engines roared as it propelled them off of the planet surface and into the atmosphere. The Spartans leaned back in their seats as thrust carried them into the darkness of space.

The Spartans felt the pelican slow as it docked with the UNSC "_Pegasus_". Almost immediately after they stopped the Spartans felt the destroyer turn and come about.

A voice came through the COMs when the ship had touched down "all Spartan squad leaders report to the bridge immediately".

Sean left the ship bay and went towards the bridge at a brisk walk. When he arrived there were ten other Spartan squad leaders. They waited another few minutes and three more squad leaders showed up.

Captain burke walked around the briefing table and spoke, "sorry for the call on brief notice but we have an urgent matter at hand, the covenant are attacking the Omega system. We have been ordered to go to slipspace and get there as soon as possible. We will rendezvous any available UNSC forces. Ground forces will drop in ODST style that includes you Spartans. We have modified the drop pods so that you will be able to fit comfortably inside with your armour. We arrive at Omega six in twenty five hours, prep and be ready to drop. Inform your squads and good luck" Burke snapped a crisp salute. The Spartans returned the gesture. "Dismissed". The Spartans turned and left.

Sean set off towards the ship bay. When he arrived his squad were still waiting from their previous mission. When Sean approached they stood at attention.

"At ease Spartans", he paused then "Omega six is under attack by the Covenant", if any emotion went through his Spartans it was impossible to tell, "we have been ordered to drop in ODST style"

"Feet first in to hell" Chris murmured

Sean nodded, "we have a job to do, and that job is to eliminate all Covenant ground forces, we leave the space battle to the naval forces. We arrive in twenty five hours, weapons check in twenty three hours, grab 15 hours sleep then we get prepped to go, understood?"

"Sir yes sir"

The squad headed for a room full of bunks to grab their sleep. Sean set his alarm for 15 hours He lay in his bunk and drifted into a restless sleep.

Sean dreamed that his squad were wandering around a street, the lights from streetlights flickering on and off. Sean heard the sound of something igniting, he turned round. Chris was floating in the air, a crystalline sword sticking out of his chest. A plasma grenade flew through the air and stuck to David's head, it exploded and bits of armour and flesh flew into the air. A jet of energy cracked through the air and Niall was down. A hunter appeared in front of Sean, he tried to move but his legs wouldn't allow it. The hunter lifted the pointed edge of it's shield and stabbed Sean in the stomach, Sean coughed blood on to his visor, the hunter pushed harder and brought the shield through Sean's back.

Sean woke with a start, his alarm was sounding to tell him to wake up. He woke up the rest of his squad with a whisper. They decided to prep and check they're weapons early.

The UNSC "_Pegasus_" came out of slipspace. Captain Burke observed the overview of the area. The UNSC carriers "_Mythic_" and "_Cowbell_", as well as the UNSC destroyers "_I would have been your daddy_","_ Tough luck_" and "_Thunderstorm_" were alongside them. The "_Pegasus_" fell in to formation beside them. Captain Burke was the senior officer of all the officers's so he took command of their small fleet.

"Lieutenant Nagasaki move us towards the planet and transmit course to the fleet"

"Aye sir"

The ship moved towards the planet and Burke had a mounting feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

Sean and his squad stood in formation "right Spartans" he said "this is our first Covenant involved mission so stay sharp and don't let your guard down, keep an eye on those motion trackers too", his squad nodded, "now let's get to those drop pods".

"Sir, six Covenant cruisers and four destroyers sir"

Burke stared at his monitor, ten Covenant ships against six UNSC ships. Burke looked to his lieutenant, his face was weary with exhaustion.

"Lieutenant" he said "ready all weapons, what's the status of the MAC charge?"

"ninety-five percent sir, ready to fire, safeties are off the archer missiles and the anti-fighter turrets are ready.

"Very good plot course for zero nine two by three two four, send course to all ships in the fleet"

"Aye sir"

The ship stopped above the planet surface.

"Sir detecting, additional Covenant carrier over capital city, three hundred and fifty feet in the air"

"Take down its shields and make sure any others that try to get through suffer the same fate"

"Aye sir"

Burke opened a fleet wide COM "this is Captain Burke to all ships of the fleet, open fire!"


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Sean sat in his drop pod and placed his assault rifle in the weapon holder. His squad sat in pods on his left and right. Sean felt jittery in his pod; he preferred his feet touching good old solid earth.

All the pods moved, they were brought out to the bay. Then the bay floor opened and there was space, and their final destination. The pods juttered slightly then there was a grinding and the pods were propelled towards the planet surface. Sean's stomach rushed up as the pod flew to the planets atmosphere. The pod jolted and shuddered as it broke the planet's atmosphere.

Then water streaked the window of the pod, Sean looked out to see a Covenant carrier just over the city, then a MAC round pounded into the side of the ship. It's shields wavered then failed, but the ship was pushed backwards, into the path of some drop pods.

Chris's voice came through the COM marred by static "Covenant cruiser directly. Below me. Not enough time to change trajectory. Angling slightly. Taking these bastards with me".

There was a pause, Sean seen several ships impact on the top of the ship, they went through the hull due to it's lack of shields. Then was a huge blue, white explosion and the carrier was gone, Chris's work probably.

Sean's pod shook violently as the explosion sent out shockwaves through the sky, he rocked around in his seat. Outside the tall forms of skyscrapers rushed passed the window, then there was the most violent jolt that there had been the whole ride, Sean nearly broke the harness as it struggled to hold the MJOLNIR armour in place.

The window of the drop pod was facing the ground, as was the door. The door separated but the pod still lay in the same position. Sean put his feet on the door and heaved the drop pod off of him; it rolled off to the side on his right. Sean held the pod still and took his assault rifle out of the weapon holder and looked around, levelling his weapon.

It was dark, but Sean's special eyesight allowed him to see in the dark, all Spartans could. He was standing in a large crater made by his drop pod; Around him was a road with buildings on either side.

Sean opened a squad COM "this is Terra squad leader report in"

A voice replied "this in Niall reporting in"

There was a large amount of static, then "this is David reporting in"

Good, Sean thought, at least those two had gotten down in one piece, as for Chris; there would be time to grieve later.

Sean set a waypoint on his squad's HUDs and began to move, keeping his assault rifle ready. He glanced round a corner and seen a group of grunts and jackals being led by three elites. Sean counted them off, ten grunts, six jackals and three elites.

He primed a fragmentation grenade and three it in their midst, the elites and two jackals rolled out of the way, the rest were blown apart. The explosion was magnified by the grunts methane tanks also exploding and the jackals were off their feet.

Sean took advantage of their surprise spraying the two jackals before they could raise their shields. The elites started to shot him; they took cover behind a car and opened fire. Sean ducked back behind the wall; his ammo counter read twenty-three. He breathed in, then he rolled out from behind the wall and opened fire on a blue armoured elite, the creatures shields sparked then failed and was mowed over by armour piercing rounds. Another blue armoured elite rolled out from behind the car and fired a series of pink needles into him. Sean rolled forward and fired his assault rifle, again the shields sparked and failed, but then Sean read the ammo counter, zero.

He drew his sidearm and fired, the elite was hit in the centre of the mouth, blood exploded from the back of it's head. The needles the elite had fired exploded draining his shields three quarters down.

The final elite jumped over the car, he wore crimson armour and moved with much more prowesses so Sean guessed that he had more experience. The elite drew a crystalline sword and charged at him. The elite slashed and Sean sidestepped then he ducked, then he pushed himself forward, bowling the elite over. It dropped the sword, which immediately disengaged, Sean then grappled with it, they stood there, two opposing forces pressing against one another. The elite pushed his face inches away from Sean. Sean, thinking of nothing else, head butted the elite. The elite fell back, shields sparking; Sean picked it up and began to deliver quick but powerful punches into the elite. Finally the elite coughed up purple blood onto Sean's armour and he delivered a quick magnum bullet to its face.

Sean stared around, his first Covenant attack; he thought it went rather well. Sean then continued to make his way to the waypoint. He was careful to avoid as many Covenant as possible before meeting with his squad.

Sean made it to the waypoint, which was inside a building, he followed a narrow corridor, and the lights were flickering overhead making it hard for his eyes to adjust. Sean rounded another corner into yet another narrow corridor. He moved along it and went through the last set of automatic doors and he reached his waypoint.

He looked round and he seen David, Niall and Chris. The nodded to him as he approached.

"How was the landings?" he asked

"Awesome" David said

Sean nodded, and then he noticed something, just out of the corner of his eye. He turned and watched the spot. The air was fuzzy; he drew his sidearm and fired. The bullet bounced off a shield.

The elite that was in camouflage was revealed, seven more were also revealed. They drew their swords. He heard the crimson armoured elite through his translation software.

Conar spoke to the demon; his sword pointed at its chest "drop your weapons demon". The demon threw down its weapon and sidearm. Conar gestured for his brothers to pick up the weapons. Then led the troupe out with the demons as their hostages. He couldn't fathom the profits and engineers interest in the technologies of these humans. They walked through the streets, past the unggoy, kig'yar and other sangheli towards the prison chambers.

Conar showed the legiko guards his rank and they let him past. They put the demons in their prison cell, stripped them of their armour and rose door shielding to maximum level. Then he exited, a satisfied smirk on his face.

Sean stared, as the elite that brought them to their prison left; it almost looked like it was smirking. He stared around trying to figure a way out of this; they had no weapons, no armour and no way out.. He sighed and hoped that they would find a way out.

David punched the shielding of the door, even with his strength the shield stayed strong. Niall sat, silently watching the guards outside. Sean stared out as well, hatred in his eyes.

Night fell around the campsite, the area outside the Spartans cell darkened. Then there was an explosion.

"That was a jackhammer launcher" David said, Niall and Sean stared outside. The elite guards had gone to see the commotion. There was a sound of two shotgun blasts, then a spray of SMG fire, an elite roared somewhere, and then all was quiet.

A Spartan appeared on the opposite side of the of the shield.

"Hey Jack" he called "we got survivors" the Spartan stared at them, "one sec guys, stand back". The Spartan drew one of the crystalline swords and slashed the control panel. It sparked, then the shields powered down.

Another Spartan appeared next to the Spartan with the sword. The Spartan held a battle rifle.

"Good work Troy, George will have the pelican here in two minutes"

"Great Jack" Troy looked at the three other Spartans. "We have armour and weapons for you boys back at base, this your first encounter?"

Terra nodded.

"I remember mine"

"Troy!" a shout came "come on we're dustin off now".

Troy waved his hand "Come on"

Together the Spartans boarded the pelican. They stared at one another.

"So" Jack said "where are you best?"

"Range, sniper" Niall said

"Explosives" David said

"And you?" Troy said to Sean

"Medium to close" he replied

"Did your squad leader survive?" Jack said

David and Niall nodded to Sean.

"You can take command" Troy said "our squad leaders died"

Sean nodded.

"Don't worry" Jack said "you'll do fine"

A voice came from the cockpit "touch down in three, two, one and we're down"

The Spartans stood up and George came through from the cockpit. Sean noticed something about these three Spartans, their armour wasn't the regulation green, they must have been special Spartans, black ops or something. The three led them out of the pelican. It was just a street, then Troy pushed a switch and a super-intendent supply cash opened up.

Inside were all manner of weapons, human and Covenant. Troy walked in and knocked on the metal wall three times then sharply twice more. A panel opened up and another Spartan came out.

"Who are these?" the new Spartan nodded to Sean, Niall and David.

"This" Troy said "is Terra squad from…." He stared at the three.

"The ghosts of reach" Sean said

"Come on Ed" Jack said, "let us in and we can get these guys some armour".

Ed nodded and stepped aside. The Spartans entered. Inside the room was small, but laid up against the wall were random pieces of armour, very few matched. Ed walked to the wall.

"Let's get you guys fitted" Ed said

"Where did you guys get this armour?" Niall asked

"These are all that's left of our squads" Troy said solemnly

"So we had better put them to good use" Ed said.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The "_Pegasus_" rocked as a plasma torpedo collided with the ship.

"Sir" Corporal O'Neil said "venting atmosphere on decks seventeen, eighteen and nineteen".

Burke nodded, the Covenant were fighting hard and ferociously, ever since they had destroyed the carrier that was below the atmosphere, well they hadn't, something had hit it.

"Set overlapping fields of fire with the railguns and if anything get's through use the archer missiles. Launch fighters and target all Covenant destroyers with the MAC guns." Burke said

"Aye sir"

The rialguns turned and fired a field. The MAC guns fired and a Covenant destroyer exploded.

"Sir" Nagasaki said "detecting Covenant carrier moving into planet atmosphere"

"Fire the MAC guns" Burke said

"Sir detecting multiple Covenant ships dropping out of slipspace"

Burke sighed "did we get a hit on the carrier?"

"Aye sir, the shields are down sir"

"Lieutenant, how many Covenant vessels?"

"Now counting fifteen sir against our four"

"Which four are remaining?"

"The "Mythic", "Thunderstorm" and "I would have been your daddy" and us"

Burke nodded, then said "Jump to a randomised vector Lieutenant, send order to fleet"

"Aye sir, beginning jump in three, two, one and we're in the slip"

The space around the "_Pegasus_" and the fleet turned white as they jumped into slipspace. The ship's hull shuddered slightly as their speed increased.

"Sir, Covenant ships following us in slipspace"

Burke sighed again, looks like they would have to engage the Covenant when they arrived at their destination.

"Corporal" he said, "weapons ready for when we arrive, inform the fleet to do likewise"

"Aye sir"

Burke steeled himself; this would be his finest hour or a glorious death.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Sean stretched his arms and legs; he had been fitted into his used set of MJOLNIIR armour. It was a mark VI body but he had picked up a CQB shoulder and an EVA shoulder. The EVA shoulder had a long attachment in the centre. The helmet, it was the bulkier mark V. Sean was honoured to wear this as it was mainly worn by Spartan II. It was more square and had a small cap going over the top. His armour was dark grey with a blue stripe on the helmet and blue shoulder pads.

He walked out of the dark room to join the other Spartans. He walked out of the weapons cache and seen his Spartans.

David wore the H-shaped chest of the scout, security shoulders and the white pointed head of Hyabusa. Niall wore the rogue helmet, with the curved body of the Hyabusa and scout shoulders.

George's recon gleamed in the night sky, Ed's CQB stared into the dark and Jack's large visored security helmet turned as he exited and Troy kept his eye on the glowing sword in his hand.

"So" Jack said, "what do we do now?"

Sean turned his head towards him and said "we make this place hell for the Covenant".

They turned back towards the weapons cache and headed for it. Sean picked up an assault rifle and a shotgun, David picked up a Covenant fuel rod and a rocket launcher, Ed hefted a Spartan laser and a battle rifle, Troy kept his sword and assault rifle, Jack held an SMG and a battle rifle, George kept a magnum just in case and Niall had a Covenant beam rifle and a sniper.

Sean turned to Troy "do you have any kind of explosives?"

"We have a Shiva warhead and twenty Lotus anti-tank mines, but we're low on grenades and rocket ammo" he replied, then said "why? What are thinking of doing?"

Sean stared to David "grab that warhead and everyone take a mine in case we need it, and listen in"

The pelican roared into the air, it was night once again, smoke rose from the flaming buildings as their pelican flew alongside the towering structures. Fire billowed from the side of them. "Yes" Sean thought, "it was time to strike back". He had gone over the plan with all of the Spartans, so they would perform it to the letter.

The pelican touched down seven kilometres away from away from their target so that the pelican wouldn't get caught by anti-aircraft fire.

The Spartans walked down the ramp of the dropship, they looked around, and the sky was filled with smoke and was pitch black. Once all the Spartans were off the ramp, it closed and the pelican lifted off.

Sean opened a COM channel with George "we'll meet you hear in an hour and a half, then get ready to get out of hear quick!

"Roger" George replied, the pelican levelled then soared away at top speed.

Sean re-entered the squad's COM channel "ok Spartans we have an hour and a half to finish this mission. Niall get in a building and provide sniper fire, take out as many sentries as possible without alerting everyone, also give Ed and David positions of heavy vehicles. Troy and Jack, we will be in charge of protecting the warhead and nearby infantry, Spartans lets move"

Four lights flashed in acknowledgment, Sean nodded and the Spartans moved, Niall split off from the group and moved for a good sniping position. The Spartans moved silently through the streets of the city, peering down the streets alongside them to make sure that there were no patrols.

When they were two kilometres from the camp Niall's voice came through the COM,

"I'm in position, note two wraiths about thirty metres down the street from your position"

"Roger that" Sean said "keep us posted"

Niall's light flashed in acknowledgment. Sean nodded and held up his fist and the squad stopped. He peered round the corner of the street they were on, sure enough there were two wraith accompanied by a ghost and a squad grunts being lead by an elite in blue armour.

Sean gestured for David and Ed to come forward, David took out his rocket launcher and Ed levelled his laser. The end of the weapon glowed red as the energy built up inside the gun, David fired his rockets and Ed's laser fired. The huge red beam passed through the squad of grunts and a wraith, David's rockets hits the elite and the wraith behind it. Both of the tanks exploded in brilliantly blue fire; the corpses of the grunts and the elite were smouldering on the ground.

"Let's keep moving" Sean said on the COM channel "the explosion probably attracted some patrols". The Spartans moved on.

Niall's voice came through the COM again "covenant patrol spotted heading for your position, permission to fire"

"Granted" Sean said. He heard the cough of Niall's sniper, once, twice, thrice, eight times it fired.

"Targets eliminated" Niall said

"Getting sloppy there" Sean said

"There was eight of them" Niall replied

Sean clicked his COM off then his squad moved on. They moved past the remains of Niall's sniper spree, all of them had been headshots and indeed there was eight of them, strange to have such a large patrol, they must be near.

Sean held up his fist as they approached the corner of the street, there was movement on his motion tracker, the red dots blinked and moved to signify the enemy movements. He peered round the corner to have a look.

There was a large blue force field set up from one end of the street to another, behind which was a large covenant wraith.

Sean opened a COM to his team "I bet you that shield deflects all weapon fire, we can use that to our advantage when our shields are down and watch out for those camouflage guys, you'll only see the air shimmer for a second", he paused "are we all ready?" four acknowledgment lights flashed, then Niall's followed.

"Right then" Sean said, "Niall provide covering fire", the light flashed, "and then lets move".

The five Spartans rounded the corner and stood in a line, behind the blue force field there was a sudden commotion and the wraith turned to meet them. The Spartans ran towards it, Sean unslung his shotgun and pushed the pump down removing the safety, Troy unsheathed his energy sword, David took out his fuel rod for a faster rate of fire and Ed lifted his laser and held down the trigger, Jack levelled his battle rifle.

The wraith fired a huge glob of plasma over the shield which landed right were the Spartans had been moments ago leaving a large black crater in its midst.

The Spartans came through the shield, Ed laser fired off as soon as he came through blasting through the wraith; Sean felt the heat of the laser pass him.

The covenant forces then started to come out in arms, grunts came out firing plasma pistols and pink needles at the Spartans, jackals activated their shields and formed a strong line behind the grunts, the elites took positions behind the jackals firing plasma bolts and carbine shots at them, Sean recognised the one in grey armour which had taken them prisoner earlier but then he seen the hulking forms of hunters behind the elites and he realised, this wasn't a temporary camp, this was a permanent fortified position.

Conar watched from behind the kig'yar energy shield as the demons took cover behind the exploded mortar tank.

"They were bold indeed," he thought as he watched them "to attack a fully fortified position". He would take great pleasure in killing them, he recognised one of them, the leader perhaps that he had taken prisoner earlier, no it couldn't have been but just to be sure he signalled for the attack to begin.

Sean crouched behind one of the destroyed wraiths thrusters and seen the grey elite signal to attack. He nodded to his squad. David let loose five bolts of fuel rod into the midst of the grunts, they exploded into a brilliant green light then ducked back down to reload. Sean heard the cough of Niall's sniper then the crack of the beam rifle and six more grunts dropped, the rest of his squad were spraying the enemy with combined fire.

Sean hopped over the wraith and fired a whole clip of assault rifle ammo, a grunt ran forward with two grenades stuck to it, Sean pouched it in the face and threw it into the field of jackals, the grenades flashed blue and exploded, several jackals flew into the air, others just vanished all together, several elites shields sparked as the explosion hit.

Sean ran towards the line of jackals and took out his shotgun, he fired two shots in quick succession, the first stunned three jackals, which lowered their shields, and then the second killed them. Sean then started to back up, plasma shots began to make his shield bar flicker down, he ducked back behind the wraith, David fired off another five fuel rod shots as cover fire. Niall's sniper cracked again and two elites in the back fell, Ed fired his laser, the huge red beam blasted through the energy shields of four jackals, went through the jackals, passed through three elites and burned a hunter to a crisp, the huge creature fell crushing another two elites, it's brother roared and charged forward.

Sean jumped from behind the cover and rolled underneath the swing of the hunter's huge arm and fired a shot with his shotgun, the beast stumbled forward then spun and swung again but Niall's sniper cracked and the beast fell, it's orange blood covering the ground. Sean turned back towards the enemy and charged with his squad behind him.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Captain Benjamin heard the sounds of plasma fire.

His drop had been pretty rough, the carrier had exploded in low orbit and sent several drop pods off course a well as destroying several others. He had managed to find and rally the remaining troopers, and after a series of vicious fire fights there were about twenty-five ODSTs left. To say they were well equipped would be an understatement; they had SMGs, rocket launchers, a Spartan laser, shotguns and a handful of assault rifles.

He signalled to his group to send a five-man scout party. The squad left then a couple of minutes later the rest of the ODST's moved on. A runner came back,

"Sir" he said panting heavily "there's Spartans sir engaged with Covenant"

The Captain smiled then said, "Well I guess that we'll have to bail their sorry asses out"

He turned to his men and shouted, "come on boys we gotta bail out some sorry ass Spartans". There was a roar of approval and his troops sprinted after the runner.

"Good" thought Benjamin "a bit of motivation never hurt anyone".

The troopers filed into a building with an overlook. The Captain looked down; five Spartans were battling what looked like a small Covenant army, one of them was battling a massive hunter, then a sniper shot came out of nowhere and hit it in the back.

The Captain opened his COM "wait a couple of minutes then fire all the rocket launchers into the enemy, then we'll take everyone down and give em a good old hose with some SMGs".

"Hoora" shouted the ODSTs

Benjamin watched the Spartan he had watched before draw out a shotgun and let it loose on the Covenant, the Captain held up his hand to signal weapons ready, then he brought his hand down.

Conar and his nine other elites in his infiltration squad had gone into camouflage mode blending into the scenery behind them, they were at least twenty metres away from the other elites from the camp when it happened.

Several of the human's explosive projectiles flew at his elites spewing fire behind them; there was a huge series of explosions as the rockets all exploded in the group of elites. When the flashes had stopped very few of their Sangheli brethren remained. Conar roared in rage, there was still the Legiko.

Captain Benjamin called out "come on ladies, let's show these Spartans who the real pride of the UNSC is"

"Hoora" the marines called and the began to rappel down to the ground to help the Spartans.

Sean watched as several rockets collided with the main body of elites killing the better part of the force, then he watched as twenty five ODST troopers rappelled from a balcony overhead and unleashed a hellish barrage of SMG fire on the Covenant hunters, the bullets ricocheted off of their main shields.

Captain Benjamin ran over to Sean,

"Where do you need support?" the Captain shouted over the roar of SMG fire

"Left flank" Sean replied, that was where the remainder of the elites and jackals were congregating. The Captain nodded and directed his troops towards the left flank.

Though the hunter's shields were nigh impenetrable, the shields couldn't protect the huge hunters from all angles.

Sean nodded and directed Jack, who was carrying the bomb towards the centre of the camp. The rest of his squad followed closely behind. David fired his last fuel rod barrage at two hunters, the shields were strong, but the force of the fuel rod shots were stronger, the hunters were blasted back then fell to the ground, dead. Niall's sniper cracked again and another hunter fell, Ed's Spartan laser blasted through another bond pair, Troy rolled forward and unsheathed his sword and charged in front, and Sean accompanied him. They both rolled under a hunter swing, Sean fired his shotgun into it's back, Troy lunged at the other, his sword left a scar across it's shield, he then rolled again, side-stepped a smash at the ground then slashed at it's unarmoured mid-section, it fell to the ground with a tremendous crash.

Slowly, the combined forces of the ODSTs and the Spartans were pushing back the hunters, but the Covenant began to adapt. Sean shot gunned yet another hunter in the back, then turned to watch the hunters fall back into a large line, they brought their shields in front of them and levelled their fuel rod cannons, they glowed green with charging energy.

"Take cover" Sean shouted, the Spartans dove back behind the wraith, the ODSTs began to fall back but they weren't quick enough. The hunter's fuel rod cannons discharged and huge beams of green light was blasted towards the Spartans and ODSTs. Most of the ODSTs took a full blast and there was only black smouldering piles left, some managed to jump to the side and avoid the huge beams. Several of the huge beams his the wraith wreckage the Spartans were crouching behind, the wreckage began to move back, the Spartans pressed their weight against it to steady it.

Conar smiled, a sense of immense satisfaction spreading through him as he watched the humans become obliterated by the hunter's powerful energy beams. He then set a waypoint on the HUD of his infiltration squad, "yes" he thought as he stood up and started to crouch towards the waypoint, "they would catch the humans by surprise just as they had done the same to the sangheli". He smiled once more then continued to the waypoint.

The wraith stopped shuddering, Sean looked up over the top of it. A huge row of hunters faced them, there had to be at least thirty pairs, there was also a small collection of elites behind the hunters. Burnt cinders of ODSTs littered the ground, their bodies black and charred, still smoking from the blasts.

Sean noticed that Captain Benjamin had survived the barrage by rolling towards the wraith, he was one of the few, there was probably only ten ODSTs left plus the Spartans, those weren't good odds, even for Spartans. The Captain sprinted for the wraith, the hunters just watched, waiting for them to attack. Sean let the Captain into the Spartan COM.

"So" the Captain said over the COM "any plans?"

There was a pause, and then the Captain said, "Well I've got one"

"Go on" David said

The Captain looked towards Ed and David, "how much ammo have you in your heavy weapons", Ed checked his counter and David check his rocket supply.

"I have three shots left in my laser" Ed said

"I have no fuel rod and four rockets," David said

"Right" the Captain, said "you two will co-ordinate with my ODST troopers to keep up a heavy weapon assault, to distract the hunters", the two Spartans nodded and headed towards the remaining troopers, "we'll need cover from your sniper"

"Got you covered" Niall's voice came through the COM

The Captain nodded "meanwhile" he said, "you remaining three Spartans will protect me, I'll have the warhead"

Sean nodded, the Captain knew that he and his ODSTs didn't stand a chance of making it out alive, the odds were stacked against them, and the Spartans would be put under severe pressure, even with their abilities.

The Captain holstered his SMG and lifted the warhead onto his shoulder.

"How much ammo we got left?" Sean said

"I have two more battle rifle clips and an SMG clip," Jack said

Troy tossed Sean two clips of assault rifle, "I won't need it," he said, holding his sword aloft. Sean nodded and slapped a clip in his ma5b. He only had four more clips and seven more shotgun shells; he loaded another couple of shells into the gun.

"Green light to go" Sean said over the open COM so all the Spartans and the ODSTs could here. There was a pause, the atmosphere was electric. Sean put a hand on the side of the wraith and flashed his green light.


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

All hell broke loose. Ed, David and all the ODST troopers fired a barrage of missile fire and Spartan laser. It killed a few bond pairs but did no major damage, but it did distract them from the wraith. While this happened Niall was firing off sniper rounds as fast as he could pull the trigger, the hunters became confused and split into two groups, leaving a large hole down the centre.

Sean jumped over the wraith and fired his assault rifle in controlled bursts. Troy sprinted ahead, sword shining in the night. Jack was firing his battle rifle at the gaps in the hunters armour. The hunters still confused, crashed into one another, trying to get past to aim at a target.

Sean had heard rumours back when he was training that the Captain had been a Spartan that was before them. He soon learned that this wasn't true, but if he didn't know this, he might have mistaken the Captain for one. He kept pace with the Spartans, Sean could tell he was going full on, even if the Spartans weren't.

The Spartans formed a triangle shape around the Captain, protecting him and the nuke, Sean at the front, Troy on the left, and Jack on the right.

A hunter pair managed to break through the tangle of bodies and levelled their guns at the four Spartans. Sean, Troy and the Captain rolled left. Jack headed straight for the hunters. He activated a plasma grenade, rolled underneath a hunter and stuck it to the exposed flesh at their backs. There was a flash and the hunter was down, Jack ignited two more plasma grenades, throwing them to either side, they stuck to two more hunters and exploded.

But the Covenant soon started to get back into their phalanx, they formed their lines once again.

"Roll!" Niall's voice came through the COM

The three did so again, a ghost came flying past them going full boost into the line of hunters, it ploughed through the middle of them, recreating a path down the middle.

Sean slung his assault rifle and picked up the Captain, the Spartans then accelerated to their top speed of forty-five kilometres per hour, and they sped down the middle of the hunters.

David, Ed and the troopers continued their fire with the heavy weapons, Niall's ghost had slowed but he switched to weapons mode and began shooting plasma globs at the hunters, Jack was nowhere to be seen.

Sean set the Captain down, he and Troy then set to work on some suppressive fire with their assault rifles. The Captain started to arm the warhead.

"George" Sean called on the COM "we need immediate evac in thirty seconds, outside the Covenant camp"

"Roger that" George said "ETA thirty seconds"

"Done" the Captain said

A pair of gold hunters split off from the main group and turned to face them, they fired two green globs of energy at the Spartans and the Captain. Sean and Troy's reflexes allowed them to dodge the shot, but the Captain wasn't so lucky, the shot hit him in the legs, he was sent into the air. Specks of blood flecked Sean's visor. When the Captain landed, Sean noticed the absence of his legs, Sean and Troy stood over him, keeping covering fire.

"Go" the Captain said, coughing blood "I'm not gonna make it, so me and my troopers will give you Spartans time to get out"

Sean stared around, Niall's ghost had been obliterated by fuel rod fire, David, Ed and the ODSTs were pinned down, they had to get out of there. With some hesitance Sean nodded to the Captain, then signalled to Troy to follow him.

"Spartans we're getting out of here" he said over the COM, Niall rolled out from under a hunter and nodded, they sprinted for the exit of the camp.

The pelican had touched when they made it, David was on the chain gun keeping the hunters pinned. A dark shadow was cast over the camp, Sean looked up. There was a Covenant carrier in the sky.

"We gotta move!" shouted George, the pelican started to lift of, Sean jumped and grabbed hold of the ramp, and David hoisted him up. He saluted his squad, then suddenly a beam of fuel rod came from below, it hit the arm he was saluting with, the pain was intense and Sean watched as his hand melted away.

He screamed in agony.

"Get the biofoam!" Troy shouted, Sean's arm was gone as far as his elbow, Troy sprayed the biofoam in until the canister was empty.

Benjamin watched as the pelican flew away after that stray fuel rod shot caught it, one of the gold hunters walked over to him and picked him up.

"What are you looking at ugly?" he said to it. The hunter grunted, blood dripped from where Benjamin's legs should have been, "so what are you waiting for? Do it!" he said. The hunter brought up it's shield and stabbed him in the stomach. Benjamin spat blood on the hunter, it growled. Then it started to make sawing motions with it, the Captain screamed in agony, then there was a white flash, and it was over.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

George swerved the pelican, trying to avoid the banshees tailing them, David sat on the turret unloading rounds of chain gun into the, the gun roared and the empty round casings clinked as they hit the ground. Niall fired his sniper twice and the pilot of one of the banshees fell. A banshee exploded as one of the chain gun rounds hit the fuselage, it exploded brilliant blue and spiralled towards the ground. Sean sat, doubled over in pain, nursing his arm. Troy sprayed assault fire at the banshees. George swerved again, there was a huge flash of light, and a nuclear mushroom cloud rose into the air. George accelerated faster and put the pelicans through it's pace as he tried to avoid the EMP from the blast.

Sean could have sworn he seen a phantom leaving the camp they had come from and dock in the carrier, which seemed unaffected. The seven banshees chasing them fell from the sky as they were hit by the EMP. The pelican shuddered violently

"EMP!" George called back, "I'll get us as close as I can, strap yourselves in though cause it's gonna get bumpy"

Sean used his remaining arm to lift the harness over him and strap himself in, the other Spartans also strapped in. The pelican lurched down, Sean could see George struggling with the controls in the cockpit. The ramp folded up. Sean could tell the pelican was picking up speed, then it lurched up violently, the pelican hit the ground again and scratched across the ground, Sean felt the hull start to heat up as the pelican scraped across the ground, then they ground to a halt.

Inside the pelican was dark, but Sean's altered vision let him see everything. His squad was unconscious. Sean unstrapped himself and walked through to the cockpit. George was out as well, there were several warning lights flashing, Sean pressed the buttons to open the ramp, it was unresponsive, hydraulics weren't working.

Sean walked up to the ramp and pushed his weight against it, it slowly opened and he fell out the ramp.

The sun had started to rise, creating a blood red sky, Sean marvelled at how it represented his loss, of his arm, of his squad and of his mentor. He could not believe that the invincible Captain Peter Benjamin was gone.

He looked around to get his bearings. George had gotten them very close, he could see the weapons cache. He went back into the pelican and gave every one a nudge. They woke up immediately. The Spartans solemnly left the pelican and went in their cache. Sean opened the COM

"Right" he said wearily, "I have no UNSC contacts in orbit, which means, there is no help, it's just us. I want one man on watch, rotate every four hours"

"Sir yes sir" the squad replied

"Good, Niall grab some ammo, your on first watch" he said

He went into the cache, sat down by a wall and immediately fell asleep. He hadn't realized how tired he was. He slept for four hours, then woke up. He walked out and tapped Niall on the shoulder, Niall turned.

"I'll take watch now" Sean said, picking up his magnum.

Niall nodded and headed back into the cache. Sean sat down, outside of the cache, and switched between the times two zoom on his magnum and normal mode, then he heard a noise from the pelican. He went to lean on his right arm and fell over onto his side.

"This is gonna take some getting used to" he thought

He moved over to the pelican, and went inside. It was still dark, someone was in the cockpit. Sean rounded the corner and found George sitting in the pilots seat. Sean tapped him on the shoulder. George turned, nodded and returned to work.

Sean put his hand on the chair and leaned forward. "What're you up to?" he asked

"Well" George said "I'm trying to make sure that this baby will fly again, hydraulics are screwed so I need to heat that back up, most of the electronics are fried." George stared at him, then said "exactly what did you expect to gain from this conflict, apart from five squads of ODSTs and a Spartan dead"

They stood in silence, staring at one another. Sean knew that the battle had not been worth the losses, it was fine at five Spartans but then everyone got involved. That force of hunters would have killed hundreds though, wouldn't it. Sean ran these thoughts over and over again in his head, he left the pelican and walked back to the cache, the blood red sky turning orange as the sun rose. Sean wondered, were those lives wasted, or lives well spent.

Conar walked into the interrogation room to where a demon was strapped to a large curved, purple operating table. The demon's armour sparked as the huragok touched it. Conar gestured for it to leave.

"Demon" Conar said in a gruff voice, it turned its head to face him. "You will tell us the location of the other demons"

"Go to hell" the demon replied, through the alien translation software,

"You don't have to co-operate" Conar said smoothly, "we have other ways" he continued. He drew his energy dagger and stabbed the demon in the leg, it went through the shields and armour. The demon howled in anger.

Conar extracted a cable from a nearby huragok, and plugged it into the back of the demon's head.

"Yes" Conar thought "soon they would know everything the demon's every place that he had been and they would just go to the place he had stayed the longest. Only Conar's infiltration squad had survived, that was all he had command of. As beta Arbiter he had to show his worth. Whether the demon survived the process was no concern of his.

Sean slept well when he switched off shifts, he had given Niall command of his squad due to his inability to fight.

"Phantom!", the shout had come from outside, Sean grabbed his magnum and ran outside. It was indeed a phantom dropship, it land ten metres away from them. No one seemed to get out. The five Spartans stood outside the cache, then Sean noticed a blur in the clear air.

"Camo!" he called out, and as he did, nine elites materialised out of nowhere, Sean rolled to the left and shot one of the elites in the face, the slug burst out the other side, spraying purple blood.

Troy was locked in a fierce sword battle against two of them, Jack, George and Niall were trading fire with six others. David was fighting hand to hand against two more, Sean recognised one of them as the elite that had taken them prisoner.

Sean ran forward and charged into the elite, he hit him hard, and even with one arm he managed to push the elite back against a wall. He hit the elite in the back of the head and then kneed it as it lowered it's head.

Conar threw the fierce human off of him, his armour sparked to show no shields. They stared at each other with complete focus, then Conar took out a sword and engaged it. The demon stepped back, then Conar threw the demon a second sword. They would have honourable combat to decide the victor.

Sean caught the sword and activated it, the elite nodded, then they both charged at one another. The swords clashed and crackled as the two blades met contact, the elite swing, Sean ducked.

The demon did a downward slice, Conar side-stepped.

The Sean cut the elites sword arm off.

"Now you know how I feel" he said venomously, the elite stood and spread his arms, Sean stabbed him in the chest.

Conar accepted his death, he had been beaten by a better opponent, these demons truly were a fierce opponent, a worthy adversary. Blood seeped from his wound, he only regretted that he wouldn't be able to witness the death of the demon, but no matter, he was about to make the great journey. And with that Conar fell to the ground, dead.

Sean disengaged the sword and threw it to the side, he walked to the elite and put his boot on the dead aliens head. Then he lift his foot up and brought it down hard, the jaws of the creature snapped, blood oozed from the creatures mouth slowly, creating a small puddle. Sean turned, drew his magnum, and ran to help his team.


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Burke was thrown from his chair as the "_Pegasus_" took a direct hit from one of the Covenant carrier.

They had faired well so far, destroying several Covenant ships without losing one of their own. There were still only four of them left.

A voice came through the COM "hello, Captain Burke, respond"

Burke rose from the floor, blood trickled down his face, from a cut on his forehead. He stumbled towards his chair and picked up his microphone.

"This is Burke"

A sigh came through the mike, "this is Captain Cole of the carrier "_I would have been your daddy_", we have sustained major damage, and we only have our seven nuclear warheads, request permission to execute Cole protocol, and secondary plan"

Burke did not speak. He thought about Cole's plan, sighed, then turned on his mike.

"Permission granted Captain, god's speed" Burke said wearily.

Burke watched his monitor of the overview of the battle. He watched as the "_I would have been your daddy_" flew into the middle of seven Covenant cruisers, he watched as the cruisers turned to face the carrier. Then there was a huge flash of light.

"Lieutenant prepare to fire MAC guns at any surviving cruisers," Burke said

"Aye sir"

One cruiser drifted away from the explosion, systems rendered inoperable by the EMP. The "_Pegasus_" MAC guns fired and the cruiser exploded. The carrier had detonated all seven nukes, creating a catyclismic explosion destroying all but one cruiser.

Burke reopened the COM "all remaining ships, co-ordinate with the "_Pegasus_" navigator, we're goin back to help the survivors". The three remaining ships turned about, and went into the slipspace.

Sean looked around at the dead elites, once their leader had been killed, they acted rashly, uncoordinated, they charged into open fields of fire, and getting gunned down. Sean walked inside of the phantom, keeping his magnum ready.

There appeared to be no one inside. Strange runes and symbols were on holographic keyboards.

"George" he called, "get in here". The Spartan in recon armour climbed up the hatch. The room was illuminated with purple lights, there was a row of seats across the two walls of the ship and at the pilot station there were holographic runes and symbols.

George stood in front of them.

"Can you fly it?" Sean asked. George snorted

"Of course I can", he sat down in the station's chair and began reading the holograms, "I was in training of all available vehicles including phantoms, now give me a sec". He leaned closer to read the runes, "right" he said, "I recognise this, I can pilot this baby no prob"

Sean patted him on the shoulder and left the phantom. He jumped down through the circular hatch, landed and walked to the weapons cache. He flexed his stump where his right arm had been; he would have to get the engineers to give him a cybernetic arm if they ever got back to a UNSC ship. He sighed, and kept walking.

Troy and Ed hopped up through the hatch of the phantom and stared around at the luminous purple interior. Troy tapped George on the shoulder, and nodded to him. Then the COM channel started receiving a large amount of static "…hello, this is Spartan…Jack I am onboard Covenant….requesting evac or…to destroy this ship"

George replied "evac is on the way Jack, hold on we are in phantom", he stopped and turned "Ed" he said "Grab all our explosives, if this goes south then we gotta be ready".

The phantom took off and swayed slightly, it's anti-grav stabilisers keeping it airborne. George nodded to Ed and Troy, they knew the risks.

Sean heard a noise of engines, he ran out of the cache, David and Niall in his wake. He looked around, and seen their phantom dropship flying towards the Covenant carrier.

He clicked his COM "George what the hell are you doing?" he shouted

"Sir, we're saving Jack, and if we fail, that carrier is gone" the reply said

"Get back here now" Sean said "that is an order!"

"Negative sir"

Sean sighed again, then said "good luck Spartans"

He watched the phantom fly off into the shadow of the vast Covenant carrier. They waited, ten minutes, twenty, half an hour, an hour, then there was a huge explosion underneath the shields of the carrier. It rippled along the whole line of the ship until the whole ship was engulfed in flames, and it disintegrated.

Sean hung his head, there goes four more good Spartans he thought, and he thought, these lives were not wasted. They destroyed a Covenant carrier, no easy achievement, so they couldn't have been wasted, but still it was yet another loss.

He thought about all of the others he had lost, Diarmuid during the procedure, Chris in the drop, and now Ed, Jack, George and Troy, four of the best Spartans he had ever known, certainly better than him and his squad.

Then he heard static through his COM "This is the UNSC Pegasus, any remaining ground units respond", Sean clicked on his COM

"This is the Ghosts of Reach Terra squad, transmission received"


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Burke felt a sense of motion sickness as the UNSC "_Pegasus_" came out of slipspace, he held it in and stared at the monitor, one Covenant carrier in low orbit.

"Lieutenant" he said "get me image on that ship"

"Aye sir", his crew were exhausted, they had been up twenty hours straight after the initial conflict. Then an image came on the screen of the purple carrier, it floated ominously in low atmosphere looking like a shark just below the surface. Then explosions began to ripple underneath its shields, spreading around the ship and engulfing it in fire.

"Spartans" Burke thought, "it had to be, nobody else could pull that off"

He turned on his COM to all frequencies to the planet surface "this is the UNSC Pegasus, any remaining ground units respond", there was a pause, then the sound of a COM clicking on "this is the Ghosts of Reach Terra squad,, transmission received"

Burke let out a sigh, there were some Spartans left, then several marine transmissions also came in but no other Spartans.

Burke turned his COM back on "all ground forces stand by, pelicans will be inbound to your positions ASAP".

There were several acknowledgements, so only one squad of Spartans had survived. Undoubtedly there were far more Covenant than anticipated and the UNSC forces were ill prepared to face such an armada, but apparently they had fared rather well all things considered.

Sean clicked of his COM after the evac order. Soon enough a pelican roared over his head. He nodded to David and Niall as the pelican touched down. Niall and David boarded the pelican, but Sean turned and stared at the weapons cache that had been their home for the days they had been there, then to the downed pelican that had carried them to safety, these sights reminded him of the four Spartans that had rescued them from the elite camp, but they were all gone. In this war, bravery was not rewarded with survival, in fact it was often the opposite, a lot of brave soldiers died, including the four Spartans that had saved him and his squad. He took a sweeping look of the area, took a deep breath, and stepped into the pelican.

The pelican took off, its engines roaring as it propelled itself into the air. As the ramp began to close, Sean seen blue skies begin to emerge on the horizon, the battle here was over, but the war would continue on.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Sean woke up on an operating table, it was familiar, this was the same room he had had his bio-augmentation procedure that made him such an effective Spartan. He looked around, the cold metal around the room seemed to be reflecting his numbness, he was having trouble caring about anything anymore, all he knew was that he was to follow orders and kill Covenant.

He lifted his right arm and flexed his robotic arm. He balled his robot hand into a fist, he couldn't feel it, he didn't have any nerves in the robotic part. He was let out of the room, the silver metal automatic doors sliding open to welcome him into a wide metal corridor, he followed it and turned right, through a door into his quarters. His steel and blue armour stood in a case next to his bed. He looked out the window into the vastness of deep space. The blackness of it enveloped everything, then his quarters COM just beeped, Sean picked up his transmitter

"this is Spartan twelve ninety-three"

"Sean, this is Burke, come to the bridge, and suit up, this is urgent"

"Roger that sir, on my way"

Sean looked at his arm once more then began to put on his suit. The Spartans had been taught how to put their armour on quickly, and in ten minutes he was on his way to the bridge, he had to remove the lower armour on his right arm to fit his robot arm.

The bridge doors opened and Sean entered the Bridge. David and Niall were already standing at ease in front of the overview board, Captain Burke stood in front of them in his black naval uniform. The Spartans had kept their MJOLNIR armour from Omega VI.

Burke turned as he entered "chief petty officer, welcome"

Sean snapped a crisp salute with his robot arm.

Burke sighed, and then said, "I realize that you expected Captain Benjamin's funeral to take place, above al else, but the Covenant happened, they're attacking Ophelia IV"

Sean nodded, it seemed like everything had stopped, Ophelia had always seemed like their small home among the stars, he had never thought the Covenant would attack it.

Burke continued on "we are going to Ophelia IV and engage the Covenant while UNSC forces rally and head planet-side".

"Sir yes sir" the Spartans said

"Good, you'll be taking Captain Benjamin's prowler planet-side"

Sean nodded; it was all that was left of the Captain. Burke stared at him, studying him for any reaction, then said "mission starts at oh nine hundred tomorrow, dismissed"

The Spartans saluted, turned and exited the bridge.

Sean walked onto the bridge of the prowler "_Meteora_", he sat in the pilots seat, and got a feel for the controls, then a marine walked in towards him and said

"Sir I have a message from Captain Burke"

Sean turned, and nodded for him to go on, "Captain Burke says that you and your squad are no longer to command the "_Meteora_" but to attack Covenant forces using experimental booster frames, that's it"

"Thank you corporal, dismissed", the marine saluted and walked off. Sean went to his quarters and decided to get some more sleep before the attack.

He was woken by his alarm, and he headed for the barracks to grab some weapons. Niall was there already, reassembling his sniper and an old-fashioned designated marksmen rifle. Sean picked it up and levelled it.

"Original edition?" he asked Niall. The Spartan nodded as he clicked the mouth of the rifle into place.

Sean picked up the original ma5b and decided to modify it. He swapped some of the firing chamber mags, changed the rate of fire and decreased the range. It was a far more powerful gun, but a shorter range, he kept his magnum the same.

David arrived and immediately hoisted a rocket launcher and grenade launcher over his shoulders.

Sean slung his assault rifle across his back and holstered his magnum. The Spartans made their way to the frames. They were silver, with a huge gauss cannon at the front and two engines at the back.

Then a voice blared over the COM "prepare to open hangar bay doors". The Spartans mounted their frames, "hangar doors opening in three, two, one", the huge metal doors fell below them and the booster frames were jettisoned into space.


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The thick blackness of space welcomed Sean as his booster frame left the hangar, the stars glinted in the darkness as their thrusters fired.

Then, a purple torpedo flew past him and impacted the side of the "_Pegasus_", the plasma boiled away at the hull. Sean swerved left, Niall and David keeping formation. A seraph flew past them, Sean opened fire with the machine guns on his frame, the fighter sped up to avoid him, Sean accelerated to keep pace, his machine guns peppering the fuselage, it exploded a brilliant blue, plasma lightning spewing around it, Sean dived to avoid it, then surveyed the battlefield.

Space was not were the Spartans were their best, but they were still fierce opponents, there were banshees flying around firing at Falcons and the much newer Hornets. The banshees were far more agile but the Hornets and Falcons were more powerful, but even still, there were more banshees than UNSC forces.

Sean accelerated towards the nearest Banshee to follow it.

"Sir, hit on our port side, decompression on decks twenty three through twenty seven"

Burke checked his monitor, and then said, "Evacuate and seal those decks lieutenant, then ready the MAC guns, what's the status of the charge?"

"Sixty three percent sir, that's as high as it'll go"

"Very well, open fire"

Sean banked left to avoid a fuel rod cannon fired from a banshee, he arced up in a wide loop and appeared behind the banshee and let loose his machine guns again, it exploded in a blue fire,

The MAC guns of the "_Pegasus_" fired off one after another, as Sean swerved round behind yet another banshee he seen a Covenant flagship explode as two of the huge rounds penetrate it, yet another was hit by the last one. Blue fire billowed out of it's hull as it drifted and collided with a destroyer, they created a huge explosion, chunks of fiery metal flew all around them, bouncing off of hulls and shields alike, Sean banked, swerved and dived to avoid the fiery chunks.

Then a huge flagship flew overhead, Sean flew beneath it's huge purple underbelly and opened his COM, "Terra, this is squad leader come in"

"Here" came David's voice

"Here" said Niall

"We need to take out that flagship" he said into his COM "it's headin straight for the "_Pegasus_", I think we should use the gauss blasts, fly over it, give it two strikes, just above the reactor to get through the hull, then a final one to hit the reactor"

"Roger that" came the replies

"Then let's move Terra" he said

Sean accelerated up along the side of the huge flagship, he was so close he could touch its shimmering purple edge, but he knew that the shields would stop him. His frame zoomed up along it and then into the space above him where Niall and David were waiting for him. He nodded to the other two, and the three of them dived, one after another.

Niall fired his huge multi-coloured beam, it struck the shields, then David's hit it and then finally Sean fired his beam into the smoke. Sean's shields flickered as the static of the EMP passed through the frame, as the smoke cleared, Sean seen a huge hole from the gauss blast, directly above the reactor, then the shields of the ship flickered and died. His blast hadn't got through.

"I'm goin in there to take it out," he said

"No Sean wait" David's voice through the COM, Sean looked to David and seen the flaming remnants of the UNSC "_Meteora_" flying towards the flagship at full speed, Sean could see escape pods being jettisoned and a radical idea hit him.

"Try and jump onto one of those pods," he shouted over the noise of the burning prowler. The turrets of the flagship had turned and begun to fire at the Prowler but the ship flew ever closer.

Sean's acknowledgment lights flashed, he crouched on his frame, then with all his strength, he pushed off, and he flew through the thick blackness, illuminated by purple lights of plasma. If he had even slightly gone off course he would have missed, but he didn't, he slammed into the pod, denting its hull, he grabbed onto one of the outside grooves. The pod continued towards the planet picking up speed.

Sean glanced back at the flagship, the burning Prowler collided with it, and then a huge slipspace rupture occurred and sucked in several smaller carriers.

"The Captain would not like what's happened to his ship now" Sean thought to himself. The air around the pod began to glow orange, Sean locked down his armour so he wouldn't loose his grip. His armour began to get warm, hydrostatic gel began to boil out of it; he turned his visor onto maximum polarisation so that he could see.

The pod had left high atmosphere and Sean could see the jungles of Ophelia IV dead ahead. The pods fins folded out to slow it down, one of them nearly knocked Sean off the ship.

Then, the ground rushed up to meet him and the pod hit the ground, hard, Sean was flung from the pod, the groove he was holding onto ripped off with him, he flew through the air and smashed into a small palm tree, toppling it over. He lay there, unable to move, and then there was a shout.

"Hey, guys, it was a Spartan, Jackson check out his armour"

A man ran over and plugged a data pad into Sean's armour, "armour's locked sir, one sec", Sean's arms dropped "there we go".

Sean pushed himself into a crouching position; his robot arm was glowing red from the re-entry. He checked his squad's vitals on his HUD, they were still alive. He stood up, to look at the marines. There were about fifteen of them, all with SMGs, Magnums or battle rifles. They stared at him, in shock or amazement.

"Who is senior officer here?" he asked the marines

"I am" said a tanned man in full combat gear except for a helmet, his extremely blonde hair shone in the sunlight, "Lieutenant Kowalski", the man stepped forward.

"Well Lieutenant", Sean said, "you have two choices, you can help me find my other two squad mates which will probably bring up your numbers as well, or you can stay here in the jungle, it's your choice but I'm moving out".

Sean turned, unslung his ma5b assault rifle from his back, and stepped into the green undergrowth.


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Sean crouched in a bush, observing two grunts on patrol. He held up his fist to gesture for the marines behind him to stop. He then sprinted out from the bush, up behind one of the grunts and ripped off its breathing mask. The little creature fell to the ground, twitching. Sean then snuck up behind the last one and smashed in its face with a powerful downward swing of his fist. He checked his radar, and then gestured for the marines to come out.

The group of marines had unanimously voted to go with the Spartan, but so far they had just been slowing him down. Sean realised this, but he also knew that their extra numbers would help in less isolated fights.

They were less than a kilometre away from Niall's position. Sean pushed a large green bush out of his way, and then noticed several red blips on his radar. He pushed aside another green leaf and he saw it. There, up on a ledge, there was Niall and a small group of marines taking fire from a large Covenant patrol.

Sean held up his fist again for the marines to stop.

"Kowalski, five marines with frags, into the middle of that group" he said quietly

The man nodded, then made several hand signals, five marines moved up alongside Sean, he held up five fingers, then counted down, then Sean and the marines threw there grenades into the group. Sean's well-aimed grenade landed into the middle of the group, then the other grenades landed around the group. There was a huge series of explosions; the only two left were two elites whose shields were sparking. Niall expertly hit one in the face with a DMR rifle and Sean sprayed a burst of assault rifle, which knocked the creature down.

He looked up to the ridge and nodded to Niall to come down. The blue Spartan gestured to the marines on the ridge. Sean gestured for his marines to come out as well. The small group met just under the cover of the ridge.

"How was your landing?" Sean asked Niall

"Pretty rough, lost my sniper" he held out the bent chunk of metal that used to be a very lethal weapon, "still got my DMR though, so it'll do"

Sean nodded to him, "we should go find David next, then try and meet up with more UNSC forces", Niall nodded.

Sean looked over to the group of marines and called "Kowalski, a moment please"

The man walked over "what can I do for you Chief Petty Officer?"

"We're going to find our last squad mate, you still with us?"

"Actually, I think we'll try and meet up with more UNSC forces, we now have about twenty and we've agreed that that's what we're going to do"

Sean stared into the marines face, it was quite clear that the man didn't want to push on any farther into enemy territory, "right", he said "he here", he gestured to a point on the mini-map, "this is a fortified base with lots of sub-sections, that's where we're goin after we find our man"

The marine nodded, "thank you Spartan, you've been a big help", and with that, he went to join the other marines.

Sean nodded to Niall, and the two of them ran into the undergrowth. They sprinted past trees, hopped over logs; everything was a blur, and the shades of green and brown nearly unrecognisable to what they actually were.

Then Sean held up his fist once again, and Niall stopped beside him. More red blips had appeared on the radar. The two of them peered through a clump of bushes, which they were behind, the bush's leafy foliage hiding them from view.

David stood there, six elites surrounding him with crystalline swords. Sean gestured to Niall to use grenades. The two of them ignited a plasma grenade each and threw them at the elites. Each grenade hit an elite in the face and got stuck there, the creatures roared an bellowed trying to wrench it off, the others diving to the side. Then came the explosion, brilliant blue, and where the elites had been standing, there were just two black craters in the ground.

Sean and Niall jumped from cover, and at the same time, David fired a rocket, which hit two of the elites, the other two ran at Niall and Sean, roaring with rage. The two Spartans rolled in opposite directions. Sean fired a burst of assault rifle; the elite stumbled, but continued running towards him. Sean backed up out of the jungle; the elite was closing the gap. Soon he was out of the jungle and he and the elite were on the edge of a cliff with a huge basin of water beneath them.

Sean drew his magnum and fired, once, twice, he squeezed off five shots before the elite reached him, its red armour seemed to gleam as he drew closer. The elite leapt at him, and Sean grappled with it, then, slowly, it began to push him back towards the edge. Dirt gathered around his feet as the elite pushed him back. Then, Sean's feet fell off of the edge of the cliff; he gripped the elite's arms tightly and pulled him off the edge as well.

They fell through the sky, the roar of a nearby waterfall drowning out the elite's bellows. Sean flew behind the elite, drew his knife and brought it down into the back of it's neck, it opened it's mandibles to roar, but no sound came out. Sean then straightened his body for the plunge as the water rushed up to meet them.


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Sean hit the water hard; he kicked and swam to the surface. He broke the surface and hauled himself onto the hard pebbles next to the basin. They scratched against his armour as he lay there panting on the rocks. Then, he pushed himself on all fours, and then stood up. He looked around, the lush green leaves surrounding the water basin.

As he bent down and picked up his assault rifle he recognised where he was. This was the place where they had done their training exercise that had allowed him and his squad to go through to the bio-augmentation stage of becoming a Spartan.

Memories came flooding back to him. Memories of their very first time holding rifles, memories of their first time wearing ODST armour, memories of this very place where they had fought against Delta squad, when Niall had hit Mark with a warthog. These memories flooded back to him in a flood of realisation, he drew on these memories and they seemed to give him strength, they burned inside him like a fire, instilling him with courage and power.

He sprinted into the jungle; he knew that he had to head for Sierra base. That's where the marines were heading, that's also where Niall and David would head as well; he levelled his assault rifle, keeping his eye on his radar.

He jumped over a log without stopping, he hopped from rock to rock as he crossed a small stream, then he got four blips on his radar. They flashed red to signal that they were enemies. Sean pushed a branch out of his way so that he could see. There was nothing there but his motion tracker still flashed. He threw a frag to the position of the blips, it exploded and four elites were shown, their energy shields sparking.

Sean dove forwards and hit one with a controlled assault rifle burst, he jumped over another, drew his knife and slashed it twice in the back, it roared in pain as it fell to the ground.

Another elite fired bolts of plasma at him, they splashed over his shields, bringing his bar down halfway, Sean sprinted forward from side to side to avoid the plasma, the he stuck his knife his the elite's head and punched it in.

A plasma grenade landed about a foot from him, he rolled backwards as it exploded, he was knocked of his feet. The elite advanced on him, it picked him up in one hand and drew a small dagger, which looked like one of their crystalline swords. Sean put both of his feet against the elite's chest and kicked with all his force, the elite was sent staggering back, Sean crawled towards his assault rifle, and picked it up. The elite drew a crystalline sword and ran towards him, Sean rolled so that his gun faced the elite and fired a burst at it.

It hit the elite full in the face; purple blood flew from its face as it hit the ground with a muffled thud. Sean walked over to the elite, which had his knife sticking out of its face. He wrenched the knife, blood spewing from the wound as the knife came out. Sean wiped his knife on the grass to rid it of the purple blood, and then re-sheathed it.

He stared at the creature with mingled hatred and pity, the creature looked idiotic, lying on the ground with its four jaws spread wide. He looked around at the dead elites; they were all wearing black armour, like the one on Omega VI, that must be some kind of special infiltration class. He made sure to take note of this; no doubt ONI would be interested.

He started to walk through the jungle again, when he heard a rustling sound. He turned, assault rifle levelled. Kowalski came stumbling through the bushes. He had a cut down the side of his face, a large gash on his arm which was bleeding, his combat gear was torn, and his blonde hair was spattered red with blood. The man fell to the ground, shivering. Sean ran to him, and crouched next to him.

"Kowalski, what happened?"

The man looked up, glassy eyed, a shadow of his former self. Sean shook him gently.

Then, several things happened at once. Kowalski jerked and made a move to grab Sean's side arm, at the same time a beam rifle cracked and the blue beam hit Sean's armour making his shields flash red. Sean reacted instinctively, he smashed Kowalski's hand aside and rolled behind a large tree stump, the man screamed in pain holding his broken arm as another beam rifle shot cracked through the air and hit him in the forehead. Beneath the blood that poured from the hole in Kowalski's head, Sean could see him smiling as he hit the ground and remained motionless.

The second beam rifle shot had shown Sean where the sniper was; he fired two magnum shots in the direction and heard a man scream in agony. Sean hopped over the tree stump and sprinted towards the direction of the screams. He emerged into a large clearing, where the man was lying on the ground. He was dressed in the red insurgent colours.

Then, thirty more men emerged, some in warthogs and mongooses, all of their guns pointed at him. Sean recognised the man in the middle immediately, it was Rufus Clarke, the man they had captured when they first used their MJOLNIR armour.

"Nice to see you Rufus" he said softly

Rufus stared at him, trying to remember who he was, then he clicked his fingers as he remembered, "you" he said "you were the leader of that squad that captured me, aren't you?"

Sean nodded

"I recognise the way you hold yourself" Rufus said "all high and mighty, like you freaks are the best chance humanity has, well you're not. We the common man will win this war and no bio-altered freak is going to stop us, take aim!"

All of the men levelled their guns at him, then a phantom dropship flew overhead, Sean sprinted for the nearest warthog and threw out the driver, he punched the gunner in the face, hopped into the drivers seat and kicked out the passenger.

"Kill him!" Rufus screamed

Sean hit the gas in the hog, and the jeep shot forwards, bullets pinged off of the armour as it crashed through the undergrowth, knocking over trees, crashing through bushes and ploughing through streams.

The warthog flew over a small ditch as yet more bullets pinged off of the side of the jeep, in the background there was the sound of the phantom's plasma cannon firing, the purple blobs splashing onto the ground. Sean's warthog swerved as a gauss gun hit it; it swerved and fishtailed as it got hit again.

Sean pulled it into a power-slide and took out his magnum. As the warthog spun round Sean fired his magnum and hit the drivers of two warthogs. The two jeeps crashed into each other, swerved away and then crashed into two other vehicles. The jeeps exploded and smoke billowed from their wreckage in thick plumes. Sean spun his warthog around and hit the gas.

His waypoint said that the base was only two kilometres from his current position. The warthog powered on, assault bullets hitting its armour.

"There must only be mongooses left now," Sean thought, "otherwise they would use heavier weapons". Sean turned suddenly, taking his jeep into some bushes, and then he bailed out, rolling to the side, taking cover behind a tree. His warthog continued on and out of sight. Soon enough, the mongooses passed by the tree in the direction of the warthog. Sean crouched behind the tree and waited for them to go out of site.

The sun was beginning to set now. It cast a bright orange colour over the top of the horizon and gave the sky faint traces of purple. Sean went through a clump of bushes; his waypoint said that the base was past these bushes. As he pushed past them a scene of utter chaos met his eyes.

Smoke billowed from a fire on the outside of the barracks, there were several jeeps on fire and more were overturned and smoking. There was a large hole in the wall of the armoury that had been blasted apart, there was no mess hall left, the ground was scorched black and bodies were scattered everywhere, human and Covenant. Among all of this the command centre stood there, the only building that was relatively undamaged, its metal window shields had been folded down. Sean walked around to the door of it, which looked like it had been smashed inwards. It was dark inside, the lights had been smashed or the fuse had been blown, but Sean knew he would have to venture inside. He slapped a fresh clip into his assault rifle and walked inside.


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Sean turned on his night vision, the darkness pressed in around him like a blanket. He slowly moved forward. There was a small buzzing sound, almost like the flapping of a bug's wings but he pressed on. As he walked down the dark tunnel, he stopped at a weapons shelf with some assault rifles and magnums. He ejected the clips from two assault rifles and two magnums.

The tunnel ended and opened into a control room, there was a control console and a marine lay on the ground next to it, or what was left of him. His upper torso lay on the ground and everything below his midriff was gone, it looked like he had been pulled apart, the blood had dried on the floor.

The buzzing noise suddenly intensified and grew louder. Sean whirled round to find the source of it. A wave of drones was flying down the passage towards him. He let loose a full clip of assault rifle with little effect. He then sprinted to the door and hit the deadlock button. The huge titanium door slid across and slammed into the wall, it's huge bolts turning to lock it. There were several thuds as the drones collided with the door as well as the sound of plasma fire on the other side.

Sean turned back to the room; he walked over to the command console and brought up the schematic of the base. There were several large tunnel networks and two Spartan signatures, probably Niall and David. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the base the were fifty shiva warheads, enough to destroy the planet and EMP everything in low orbit. Sean clicked his COM on but only got static. Covenant were jamming the signals.

Sean headed down a sloping tunnel, keeping his ma5b levelled. He turned left down another narrow tunnel, then he heard an explosion which he recognised immediately, then three DMR shots rang out and that confirmed his suspicion. He edged round a corner. A group of elites had pinned down Niall and David at a tunnel intersection.

David fired a grenade into the middle of the group, but the elites rolled out of the way. Niall fired a steady string of DMR fire but could only get a few shots on one before another would roll in front.

Sean crouched and snuck up behind an elite, then jumped on it and stabbed it in the neck with his knife. The other elites turned to see him. Sean rolled back as David fired a rocket into the middle of the group. The explosion sent four elites flying, Niall carefully eliminated two and Sean finished the last.

Sean walked over to his squadmates.

"You're late" Niall said

"Sorry" Sean replied "you know the traffic at these times is just the worst"

The three of them chuckled.

"Anyway" Sean said "we need to get here" he gestured to a waypoint which he set on their HUDs, "we find this, set off the nukes and get the hell outta here before it all goes up". The other two nodded, "right then" Sean said "let's rock and roll".

The three of them set off at a sprint, they encountered very little Covenant, but where they did, they used a separate junction. They had to get to the nukes as stealthily as possible. It took them fifteen minutes to reach the nukes as escape room.

The doors slid open, and two hunters stood on the other side. Sean rolled backwards, Niall and David dove to either side as the hunters fired their fuel rods. The blob of green energy soared over Sean's head, only just missing him. Sean primed to frags, threw them, then ran in, Niall and David followed closely behind.

David let loose two rockets that hit one hunter, it turned and Niall fired a barrage of DMR into it's back. Sean slid between the legs of the other hunter, then jumped onto it's back. It straightened out it's spines and one nearly skewered Sean. He primed another fragmention grenade and punched through the soft flesh of the hunter's back, he then released the grenade and jumped back as the grenade exploded. Bits of hunter flew around the room as the other hunter also hit the floor.

"Sean" Niall said "we may have a problem"

"What is it?" Sean asked

"The nukes are here but there's only one pod and it doesn't look like a normal pod"

Sean looked. The pod was placed in a tube that looked like a cannon, it was sleek and black.

"It's a slipspace pod, they were probably testing it here" Sean said, he walked to it "there's only one seat". Niall and David looked at each other, then rushed Sean, they grabbed him, threw him in the pod and deadlocked it. "What the hell are you doin?" he said "you're gonna get yourselves killed"

The was a huge noise like a stampede of feet, a tide of enemies coming towards them.

David put two fingers across his visor as the Spartan smile. Niall looked at him and said "Spartans never die", then he hit the button on the control panel.

A black sheet of glass folded down over the pod, the pod shifted and turned, then it shot out of the tube, on Sean's HUD a set of co-ordinates came up. He accepted them. The pod flew threw the sky as it's rocket kicked in, it flew into space. Sean looked back towards the planet, it looked almost peacefull, then there was a flash of white light, the groud began to crack, lava came from it's surface, then space around him turned white.


	23. epilogue

Epilogue

Burke watched as Ophelia IV exploded before his eyes. The ship began to shudder. Cracks began to appear in the metal around the bridge, then the "_Pegasus_" was ripped apart.

Earth central defence station

**Cairo **

**Co-ordinates 354.20 by 219.4**

Ensign McNamee looked at his overview console, as always, it was blank. Nothin but blank space out there. He checked his watch, two more hours till his shift was done. No idiot was gonna just fly outta the blue and trigger the alarms, this is Earth after all. One of the safest places in the whole galaxy.

Then the alarms went off. The Ensign stared around in disbelief, he checked the monitor. It was a tiny anomally, a UNSC tag on it, it was a slipspace pod. He turned on his COM "unidentified UNSC vessel please respond"

There was a very long pause, it felt like the longest period of time in the Ensigns life.

"This is Spartan S13" Sean replied "Terra squad ghosts of reach"

**The END**


End file.
